Graduation - Prequel
by Grykon
Summary: A prequel to my Graduation story AU 37.0001 What happens immediately following the fallout in the Garage
1. Chapter 1

**Well after taking a little break from writing and reading a little of the other stories out there on our favorite geniuses I decided to get back into it. My story Graduation was always meant to just start where it does but today I started thinking about it and I decided I wanted to write a prequel for it. This story won't encapsulate the entire 3 years before Graduation but I wanted to try and write at least from after Paige get's home to sometime after/around when Dr Rizzuto starts treating Walter. To the Adventure -Tim**

* * *

Paige slammed the door and screamed as she fell to her knees on the floor and began crying. Ralph bolted from his bed at the unaccustomed noise that woke him from sleep. He looked about his room trying to understand what he was hearing when it dawned on him he was hearing his Mom crying. Fear filled his face and heart. He ran out of his room and saw her kneeling there just inside the door. His babysitter standing by the couch shocked. He walked slowly towards his Mom; tears began to streak down his face. It had to be Walter; their mission had to have gone wrong, Walter had to have been seriously hurt or worse. He reached her and knelt down beside her and wrapped his arms around her neck and cried with her. Paige wrapped her arms around Ralph and they just cried for a long moment.

"I'm sorry Mom, is Walter dead?" Ralph slowly asked with such fear of her answer. Paige slowly shook her head, "Is he okay? Was he hurt and in the hospital? Is he going to be okay?"

Paige sniffed and wiped at her eyes, "He's fine Ralph; I'm sorry Ralph, I really don't want to talk about it right now. Please go back to bed. We'll talk about it in the morning. Okay?"

A million questions burst into his brilliant mind but he could see the pain and sorrow and he decided to bury them for now and kissed his Mom and went back to his room.

Paige slowly got up off the floor and seeing the babysitter, she sighed as she got up and grabbed her purse and pulled out her wallet and paid her while canceling the rest of the week with her.

Ralph grabbed his laptop before he got in bed and turned it on. He quickly muted the sound and turned down the screen brightness. He opened up the messenger program they always used to communicate when they weren't together. He saw Walter's id was online and he sent a message. "What's going on? Why is my Mom hurt and crying?"

Ralph sat there waiting and waiting. The longer it was taking the madder he was getting. Finally he saw that Walter was typing a reply. "Hey Buddy, look, it isn't a good time, but you deserve to know, I stuffed up. Not on purpose but yea, I really made a mess of things. I had invited Florence to that lecture your Mom didn't want to go to. Not out of anything romantic or anything, just to share the experience with someone and kind of as a thank you for all she had done to help Scorpion. But I stupidly didn't bother to tell your Mom about it. She found out about it tonight and well, I guess we're over now. Sylvester and your Mom quit the team and walked out, followed by Toby and Happy."

Ralph sat there unable to decide what he should be doing or feeling, tears were leaking from his eyes as he read what Walter typed several times, he wanted to smash something, he wanted to hit Walter, he wanted to tell her to forget him, he wanted to go beg his Mom to give Walter another chance.

* * *

Paige threw her coat at the closet door and watched it fall to the floor in a crumpled mess. Numbly she walked into the kitchen and pulled the bottle of wine out of the fridge and walked back into the front room and sat down on the couch and struggled to get the cork out. Finally she just pushed it back into the bottle and took a big swig and then another and another. "Why Walter?" She questioned as she took another swig.

* * *

Ralph saw another message come across from Walter, "Ralph? Are you still there? You want to yell at me too? I'm really sorry." Ralph was so confused, he'd been so happy since they got rescued from the island. He had been so sure that his Mom would marry Walter and he'd be his Dad then and they'd live as a real family, he might even get a sibling from his parents. But now, his dreams had been dashed and his heart broke into a thousand little pieces. He grabbed the laptop in anger and started to throw it but at the last second he stopped and told it to shutdown and put it on his nightstand and crawled under his blankets and cried himself to sleep.

* * *

Walter sat there for over two hours waiting for Ralph to come back online and to respond. He sighed as he finally decided his Mom must have caught him and took the laptop away from him. He refused to believe Ralph wouldn't have kept talking to him otherwise. He got up and walked around the Garage, refusing to go up to the loft. Her presence was so strong in the Garage itself, what it was going to feel like upstairs frightened him. He could smell her perfume, her soap, her shampoo and his memory thought back to how many times in the last year when they stayed late and just enjoyed each other's company here on the main floor. He started to go into the camper and sleep when the Garage door opened. He turned, "Paige?" he asked in desperation. He saw Happy and Toby come in, "Come back to gloat and rub more salt in my wounds?" Walter asked in anger.

"Happy decided she wanted to get her tools tonight." Toby told him.

Walter scoffed, "Afraid I was going to get rid of them? You should know me better than that."

Toby shook his head as they grabbed her tool chest and drug it back out the front door. Walter sighed as he entered the camper and walked into the back and stretched out on the bed and slowly fell asleep.

* * *

Ralph woke up the next morning, the sun seemed awful high and he checked and his clock said it was almost 10 AM. He leapt out of bed, fear in his heart, his Mom never overslept. He ran to the door and opened it and saw her lying on the couch, the empty wine bottle on the floor. He ran over with tears in his eyes and fear in his heart. He checked and found she was still breathing and he fell on the floor and cried.

Something was wrong, Paige couldn't quite figure out what it was, her mind still half befuddled by the wine, she forced her eyes to open and the room was completely blurry, she blinked several times and her eyes focused slightly and she realized she heard crying and she tried to sit up but then saw Ralph was half laying on her hip crying. "B-baby? Wass wrong?" She slurred.

Ralph's head shot up, "Mom? Mom, are you okay?" Ralph asked desperately.

Once he got off her hip she slowly sat up on the couch and grabbed her stomach, "Yea baby, I'm okay, are you okay? What time is it?"

"If you're okay than I am okay, it is a little after 10 AM." Ralph told her.

Paige held her head, "Oh man, you're late for school and I'm late for work." Then just like that the reason for her drinking came back to her. "I guess I better call your school and tell them you won't be in today." She looked around for her purse and seeing it by the door she tried to get up and fell back and Ralph got up and picked it up and brought it to her. Paige smiled, "Thank you baby." The smell of the alcohol on her breath nearly caused him to gag so he stepped back and sat down on the coffee table. "Good morning Miss Avery, its Paige Dineen, yea, Ralph won't be in school today. I forgot to call earlier; he has a couple of appointments. Yes, he will be back tomorrow. Thank you."

Ralph stared at his Mom with his eyes wide; he never heard her flat out lie before. "God I feel awful," Paige said, "This is why we shouldn't drink Ralph. Give me a minute and I will make you something to eat."

Ralph shook his head, "It's okay Mom, I'll just go make a bowl of cereal."

Paige looked up at him and frowned, "Are you sure baby? I'm really sorry you are seeing me like this."

"It's okay Mom, I know Walter hurt you," Ralph told her.

Paige's eyes opened wide in shock and fear, "Oh baby, I'm sorry; I was going to tell you today. H-How did you find out?"

Ralph looked down, "I used my laptop to message him. He told me what he had done. D-did you guys really quit and leave Scorpion?" Tears stood in his eyes as he feared her answer.

Slowly she nodded, "I can't be with someone I can't trust baby, I-I hope you can understand that and forgive me." Ralph started crying again. Paige reached over and pulled him over onto her lap and hugged him tightly.

"He seemed really sorry about it Mom; he said there hadn't been anything romantic about it. Do you think you could give him a second chance Mom? Please?" Ralph sob.

Tears slipped out of Paige's eyes, "Oh baby, I don't know, I don't think so. My heart is screaming yes, but I just don't think he will ever finish developing emotionally or even any more and I need more than where he is."

"But you knew where he was before you ever decided to become his girlfriend; you had no clue then if he would get better or not, why was it an acceptable risk then but not now?" Ralph asked imploringly.

"Well that's just part of it; another part of it is he's been hiding this from me for several weeks. I even gave him the opportunity the other day to just come out and tell me what was going on. I told him I loved him, I knew he was hiding something and we could work through it if he would just tell me the truth and he chose not to until I discovered the full truth." Paige told him. 'Yea, but truth is, if he hadn't have told me the first half of the truth, I wouldn't have looked around and found those two tickets. So didn't he actually kind of tell me the truth?' She thought to herself.

Ralph sadly nodded his head, "I think I just want to go lay down for a while."

"Are you sure baby? I'm feeling better; I could make you something or fix you cereal if that is what you want." Paige told him.

Ralph shook his head, "I think I will just wait until lunch." Ralph kissed his Mom and stood up and walked into his room and got back in bed. Ralph began crying, crying for the pain his Mom was in, for Walter's pain, for anger at Walter for what he did, for his Mom not being able to look beyond that and mostly because knowing how much he was like Walter, if the most loving woman he's ever going to meet can't deal with Walter's short comings, what chance does he have at ever finding a life partner.

* * *

Paige sat there for several minutes and then got up and walked into her bedroom. She could smell Walter's cologne in the air and she sighed as she looked at her bed. How many times they had slept there, made love there. She walked over and opened the window hoping the wind would rid the room of his scent. She didn't need that reminder. She saw all the pictures on the wall of the three of them. She shook her head and walked into the bathroom and took a quick shower and then filled the tub with hot soapy water and just soaked.

* * *

"Walt, hey Walt! You here kid?" Cabe yelled at the loft.

Walter's eyes opened slowly and he looked around. Seeing he was in the camper he sighed knowing that last night hadn't been a nightmare. Cabe saw the camper jerk around as Walter stood and walked towards the front. He watched as the door opened and Walter stepped out into the Garage. "You okay kid?" Cabe asked him filled with concern. "I've called you a dozen times this morning. You missed the job meeting this morning."

Walter nodded as he stepped over to his desk and picked up his phone and dismissed the alarm that had been going off every fifteen minutes for the last four hours. He scrolled through all the miss calls, all of them Cabe's, none of them hers, he sighed. He looked at his laptop but saw that Ralph hadn't ever responded to his messages. He sat down and sighed again.

"Last night was pretty rough, you going to be okay?" Cabe asked.

Walter just shrugged. He looked up at Cabe and swallowed hard, "How do I fix this Cabe?"

Cabe sat down at the chair by his desk, "I don't know kid; I really don't. Allie said to tell you she was really sorry."

"Happy and Toby came back late last night and grabbed her tools and left." Walter told him.

Cabe nodded, "Well, I guess that explains the outside then."

Walter looked up at Cabe, "What do you mean?"

Cabe drew in a deep breath, "You better go take a look for yourself."

Walter stood up and walked over to the door and stepped outside, he saw his car had four flat tires and a tire iron smashed into the windshield and he saw a ticket on his car, he sighed and walked over and pulled the ticket, 'Broken windshield, four flat tires, $525' and as he turned around he saw in big bold neon letters spray painted across the front of the building, "You're a real dick!" Walter sighed and walked back inside.

Almost on cue the Garage phone began to ring and he walked over and picked it up and heard his landlord yelling on the other end about the spray paint. "It's bad enough with all the taggers and now you are pissing people off so they start writing obscene messages on the building? I expect you to either paint over it or get it removed before the end of the day!" The line went dead as his landlord slammed the phone into its cradle.

Cabe looked at him as he sat down and he could see the tears in his eyes and he could see his spirit breaking. Cabe pulled out his phone and dialed, "Hey Jerry, yea man, it's Cabe, hey can you do me a favor? My son's car got vandalized last night. Yea, four tires and windshield, if we can get it fixed up today can you do something about the ticket it was hit with this morning? Yea, here's the tag number. Oh yea? Awesome Jerry, thank you so much." Cabe hung up and looked at Walter, "My friend Jerry is going to fix the ticket now and tag your plate so if something else happens, the patrol officer will know you are being victimized." Walter nodded his head as a few tears ran down his face.


	2. Chapter 2

**For anyone I may have confused, Graduation is a completely separate story line from Head Space. Just like how Happy and Cabe from the Head Space story line went to another Earth and met Supergirl and The Flash there are other Earths where there are other Scorpion teams. Graduation is one of those alternate Earths. That's why in the Summary I list AU for Alternate Universe and the universe number either 35 for Head Space story line or 37 for Graduation story line. I know things like this can get kind of confusing so I will do my best to make sure going forward to make it clearer. So to be clear here, Head Space and the sub stories to Timeline are separate from Graduation and Thanksgiving and now this prequel, hope that helps. -Tim**

* * *

*knock* *knock* Happy looked up from her knuckle head motor towards their front door. Wiping her hands on a rag she walked over and opened the door, "Hey Happy."

Happy smiled and stepped back, "Hey Sly, what brings you all the way over here?"

Sylvester walked in shaking his head, "I'm not sure what I should be doing right now. If this was any other day I would be at the Garage either working on some algorithms or helping on a case."

Happy nodded as she shut the front door, "I hear you; I decided to use the time to work on this motor." Happy walked over and sat down on her stool at her work bench.

"Have you got a bottle of water?" Sylvester asked.

Happy looked up, "You know where the kitchen is, you're family and I'm not a waitress."

Sylvester nodded and walked into the kitchen and got a bottle of water and walked back into the living room and sat down on the couch. "I know I don't need to work for a while money wise but I really feel aimless already. Have you guys thought where you are going to try and find work?" Sylvester asked.

"Nope, I'm taking this week off. I might look at the want ads this weekend." Happy told him.

"I wonder if we can find a job where we can keep working together." Sylvester said.

Happy shook her head, "Not likely, I'll probably have to find a garage to work at, there aren't many engineering firms that would hire me, and either way, it's not like they would need a behaviorist or a human calculator to do work for them." Happy looked up and saw the pain on his face, "Sorry buddy, not trying to hurt you. I just don't see many options."

Sylvester nodded, "M-maybe we should go back to Walter then?"

Happy slammed her wrench down and started to open her mouth, "Hey Happy, I got an idea, oh hey Sly." Toby said as he came out of his office room.

"Hey Toby," Sylvester said as Happy turned her attention to Toby.

"The three of us join up with Paige and form our own problem solving business. But we do it as a partnership; we all get an equal vote and majority rules." Toby told them.

* * *

Cabe called for a tow truck and with Walter followed the truck to a nearby garage that was able to squeeze his car in for repairs. While they worked on the car he took him to the closest hardware and bought a couple of cans of paint and rollers and they went back to the Garage and began to paint over the message someone had painted on the front of the Garage. Cabe watched Walter all day and all day Walter retreated further and further into his intellect and became gruffer with each passing hour. After getting the message covered and taking Walter to get his car Cabe decided he had enough and left for the Homeland office.

Walter sat at his desk, his laptop pushed to the side. Still no message back from Ralph and Walter just sat there staring out into the empty Garage.

* * *

It wasn't her favorite thing to do, she much preferred to cook a good meal but Paige knew how much Ralph liked Spaghetti O's with meatballs so she opted to serve them to hopefully brighten his evening. He'd been so depressed all day and it really broke her heart further. While Ralph had dug into his dinner she spent most of the time just staring into the bowl pushing the pasta and meatballs around with her spoon.

"Mom, are you really okay?" Ralph finally asked.

Paige forced a smile on her face and sat up in her chair. "It's just hard baby, not being at the Garage, not sharing our time with Wal…him. Seeing you so sad, it's just a lot to deal with." She tried to explain.

"Maybe we could just go over and talk to Walter, I'm sure he's really sorry." Ralph pleaded.

Paige shook her head, "Baby, I know you don't understand and my heart would say yes in a minute. You see getting back together as the only way to end this pain but this pain is only temporary, no matter how much it hurts or long it lasts. Like when your Dad left us,"

Ralph grew mad at that and interrupted her yelling, "Dad didn't leave us; you broke up with him and left Scorpion."

Paige was shocked, "Ralph, you don't talk to me like that. I was speaking about Drew, not Wal…him."

Ralph frowned and looked down at his lap.

"When Drew left us, it was devastating because he chose to leave us so he could pursue selfish goals rather than be your father and my partner." Paige told him. "But we came through it regardless to that pain and we'll come through this too."

"But couldn't you still keep working for Scorpion? That way I could keep working with Walter on our projects?" Ralph pleaded.

Paige shook her head no, "That would just confuse the issue and give false hope. Like Drew cut us off, we need to cut this off."

Ralph put down his spoon, "May I be excused please?"

Paige reached out and caressed the side of his face, "If you're sure you are done, yes. I know I've said this a lot today, but I am sorry."

Ralph nodded with tears in his eyes as he got up and walked over and sat down at his video game controller, he picked it up and stared at it and then sat it back down and got up and walked slowly into his bedroom.

Tears welled up in her eyes as she watched him walk away struggling to deal with the emotions. She heard a knock on their door and she slowly got up and wiping her eyes she opened the door and saw one of Ralph's classmates, "Hi Ms Dineen, Mrs. Avery asked me to bring Ralph's homework over." She held out several pages to her.

"Oh, well thank you so much, you're welcome to give them to Ralph yourself." Paige told her.

She shook her head, "It's okay and my Mom is waiting in the car. Have a good night!" She waved after Paige took the papers and left.

* * *

Cabe sat at the dinner table across from Allie, his fork in his hand but he just stared at his plate. "Cabe, is there something wrong with dinner? I don't think you have taken that first bite." Allie asked.

Cabe looked up and she saw his eyes red, "No, dinner is fine. It's just," he paused unsure if he could actually say it out loud.

Allie put her fork down and stood up and walked over behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck, "I know this is bothering you a lot. You know, you don't have to be strong Cabe, you can let go, feel what is going on, lean on me, cry if you need to."

Cabe broke down and Allie held him tighter as he cried.

* * *

Walter still sat inside the Garage just staring out into the emptiness, the shadows growing deeper and longer as the sun moved closer to setting and the lights off except in the airstream. He heard the door lock click and the door opened, "Walter? Are you here?" Florence called out as she stepped into the Garage. He continued to just sit, unresponsive as she began to walk over towards his desk. "I-I didn't apologize to you last night, I never should have accepted your invitation to the lecture and I definitely shouldn't have opened my mouth to say I had feelings for you."

Walter finally moved as his hand came up and brushed through his hair and down his face, "No worries; goodnight." He told her.

"Uh, oh, okay, I uh, I didn't know if you had eaten, I didn't smell any food and I was thinking of going to Kovelsky's for dinner if you would like to come?" Florence told him.

"Have a good dinner," Walter said without looking at her.

Florence slowly turned and left the Garage and began walking the short distance to the restaurant.

* * *

"Walter's losing it Allie, all day I could see small chips breaking off of him. Probably the biggest one when he saw the message someone painted on the outside of the Garage when they vandalized his car." Cabe finally was able to settle some of his feelings.

"Someone vandalized his car, who?" Allie asked him shocked as she sat in the chair next to him holding his hand.

Cabe shook his head, "No clue, by the message I would say it was Sylvester, but, as late as it had to be when done, there is no way he could have gotten over there and back home. The bus doesn't run that late and besides, he's scared of the dark. To walk those streets at that hour, plus carry the supplies needed."

"Message, what did it say?" Allie asked.

Cabe looked down, "You're a real dick!" Cabe looked out the window as Allie gasped. "Sliced all four of his tires and put a tire iron through his windshield," he finished.

"Oh Cabe, Sly couldn't have been the one to do that. He's too gentle." Allie defended him.

Cabe shrugged, "I would have agreed with you but he actually put hands on Walter last night, I think he would have punched him if I hadn't of pulled him away from Walter. Oh my Lord, Allie, the look on Walter's face this morning when I got there, he was begging me to tell him how to fix this. I know he didn't eat breakfast or lunch, I doubt if he is eating dinner. I'm really worried."

* * *

Florence sat down at the booth at Kovelsky's, "So, what's happening?" Collins asked her.

Florence looked down a frown on her face, "What do you think is happening? Walter is devastated. He's broken, why are you doing this? Why are you forcing me to help you?"

Collins laughed, "You don't know what Walter put me through or you wouldn't even ask that as for you, you were just a convenient tool to facilitate it. If you want your company back, you stay on script until I am done. Got it?"

Florence nodded her head slowly, unable to believe what she allowed to happen and her own role in it and for what, her company back? Collins got up, "Have a good dinner." He sneered at her as he left.

* * *

Paige looked into Ralph's bedroom to check on him. He was already fast asleep. She walked over and sat down on the edge of his bed and ran her fingers through his hair. "I'm so sorry Ralph, I know how much you wanted this; I did too. Maybe in a few days I won't be so angry, maybe I can go talk with Walter and we can work through this. I just don't know." A tear fell from her eye and she got up and walked over and picked up his backpack and took it out to the front room and checked his homework. She smiled at how fast he had completed it, she looked back towards his room, she was happy she refused to pull Ralph out of school in favor of home schooling, she wasn't sure if it was the lack of socialization that had stunted Walter so bad or not but she was sure it had to play a part in it. She was bound and determined to keep Ralph involved with kids his own age to help him. But then another tear fell, as she realized without Walter where would Ralph be today. Still medicated for autism they'd diagnosed him with and unable to relate to anyone, including her. She thought of how bad Walter's relationship was with his parents and Sylvester's with his parents. She loved Ralph too much not to do everything she could to keep him developing.

Paige put his homework up and closed up his backpack and walked into the kitchen, she opened the fridge and pulled a bottle of wine out and started to walk back into the front room. As she started to sit down she stopped, "What am I doing? I can't do this to Ralph again." She took the bottle back into the kitchen and put it back in the fridge. She walked over and opened her bedroom door and she changed into her sweatpants and halter she normally slept in when she was alone and laid down on the bed. The scent of Walter was on the pillow next to her since she hadn't done laundry yet and she began crying. The emptiness of the bed, his scent was too much and she got up and went back to the couch and curled up on it and as the tears continued to come she pulled the afghan off the back of the couch and covered up with it and cried herself to sleep.

* * *

Florence's alarm went off and she got up, turning it off she dressed in the dark sweats and went downstairs to her lab. She opened her flammable cabinet and pulled out the neon paint she had used last night and sighed as she strode over to her door and unlocking it she slowly looked out and then stepped out into the street. She slowly moved over to the Garage door and after checking again she wrote another message. She thought she heard the squeak of a chair sliding on concrete and panic hit as she ran across the street and hid behind some trash.

She watched as the Garage door opened and Walter stepped out, she saw him look around and then turned and he saw what she had written. She saw his head slump and his shoulders jerked repeatedly as he re-entered the Garage. Florence had tears running down her face as she knew Walter had broken again. She waited a good hour before finally moving off away from the Garage before circling the long way around the block and going back into her side of the building.

* * *

Cabe pulled down the street to the Garage, he planned to get Walter and take him to breakfast whether he wanted to or not before going to Homeland when he saw the new message. Anger shot through him instantly and he slammed on his brakes. He pulled out his phone and called Katharine Cooper. He filled her in on what had happened to Scorpion and then told her what had happened the last two nights at the Garage asking if Homeland could afford to put an agent on duty at night to see if they could catch whoever it was tagging the building. Katharine was very sympathetic and said she would order the detail since Walter was a government asset. After thanking her Cabe pulled on down and parked his SUV and he saw Walter come out with the paint cans and roller.

"Walter, do not put any stock in that message." Cabe yelled.

Walter just shook his head and poured the paint into a rolling pan and began painting over it, "Unworthy of love."


	3. Chapter 3

Toby and Happy were driving down the street on their way to pick up Sylvester when Toby's phone rang. Toby looked down at his phone and saw Cabe was calling. "It's Cabe," he told Happy.

Happy shrugged, "So, answer it."

Toby hit answer and put the phone on speaker, "Morning Cabe," he said.

"Look, I don't want to believe it's you guys but have you and Happy been sneaking over to the Garage and vandalizing Walter's car and spray painting mean messages on the building?" Cabe said with some heat.

Toby's face contorted in confusion, "What? No Cabe, Happy and I haven't been back to the Garage since we got her tools the night before and Walt's car was fine when we left and we certainly didn't spray paint anything on the building."

"Well someone is and it's tearing Walt apart at the seams. And it's got to be someone connected to all of this with the messages, what about Sly?" Cabe asked.

"Are you kidding? Sly wouldn't be caught outside the Garage at night for nothing, at least not without an armed guard." Toby told him.

Cabe grunted, "Well that only leaves Paige and I can't believe she would do this, regardless to how much she hurt."

"Look Cabe, we might all be upset and stuff, but I can't believe anyone would do something like that to Walt. What were the messages? Maybe it would give us some clue." Toby told him.

"Well the first night it was 'You're a real dick.' Last night it was 'Unworthy of love'." Cabe told him.

Happy looked at Toby, "Not good."

Toby considered the words for a few moments, "Well the first one is fairly generic and antagonistic but the second one is more troubling, it is designed to hit Walter hard in his psyche by someone who knows Walter and what he fears the most. They are trying to inflict maximum damage with minimal effort. Cabe, whoever is doing this is seriously dangerous. How's Walter doing?"

"How do you think he is doing Doc? I told you, he's coming apart at the seams. He's growing colder and colder with each passing minute. There's absolutely no light in his eyes. He's refusing to eat; he just sits at his damn desk staring off into the distance." Cabe said angrily.

Toby nodded his head, "Okay, well I don't have time today but I will come over first thing in the morning to talk with him, can you keep him going until then?"

Cabe became angrier, "Like I have a choice, he's my son damn it." Cabe hung up.

Toby sighed as Happy pulled up in front of Sylvester's apartment. Sylvester came running out as soon as he saw them and squeezed into the pick up with them. "Okay, no offense Sly, but we really need to get Paige on board with us because the three of us can't keep squeezing into this pickup." Toby told him.

Happy reached up and flicked his ear, and as Toby shrieked in pain, told him, "Don't insult my friend."

Happy took off down the road headed for Paige's place. "Hey Sly, got to ask you something." Toby said.

"No you don't Doc," Happy said.

"Yes, I do. This is serious and we need to know for sure." Toby told her. Happy glared at him, "Glare all you want, you know I have to ask." Toby turned his head back to Sylvester. "Sly we know you, we already told Cabe it couldn't have been you, but have you gone back over to the Garage the last two nights and spray painted messages on the Garage for Walter?"

Sylvester looked at him, "Uh, no, you know I am afraid of the dark. And that neighborhood, you're lucky I went there during the daylight hours."

Toby nodded, "I know buddy, but you were so mad the other night, just wanted to be sure."

"You think it was the waitress than?" Happy asked.

Toby shook his head, "Not a chance, if she went over there right now she'd run inside and throw herself on Walter asking him to forgive her. She loves him too much."

"Than why did she break up with him?" Sylvester asked.

"Good question, but mostly because of trust issues with her Mom. If it hadn't been for the way Veronica was she wouldn't have been half as mad, she knows Walter loves only her." Toby told him.

"So why are we going to propose starting a business to compete against Scorpion instead of getting them back together?" Sylvester asked.

"Remember when Paige did her sink or swim on Walter?" Toby asked. Sylvester nodded his head. "This is kind of the same thing. We show Walter that there is another way. Walter's biggest failing isn't his lack of EQ, at least, not anymore. It's that his fear is still overriding his good senses. And I don't mean like fear of death, he's scared of failure. That fear has been the bedrock of his emotions from his early childhood. Fear of not measuring up to other people's expectations of being excluded and left."

"Uh, Doc, isn't that exactly what we've done?" Happy asked.

Toby nodded, "Exactly, I've puzzled and puzzled what goes on inside of his head and this is what I have finally deduced yesterday is his biggest problem. If we can get him to break through that fear, he'll come to us a much healthier version of himself able to interact more like us. Well, more like Sly and I." He smiled at Happy.

"Good thing that's true or I'd have to hurt you again." Happy smiled.

* * *

Paige unlocked her front door and entered after taking Ralph to school. She made a beeline to her bedroom, she had to get this done fast while her resolve was still firm. She stripped the bedclothes off the bed and carried them into the utility room and started the washer and began putting everything into it. The pillowcase with Walter's scents on it fell to the floor and she bent over and picked it up and started to throw it in with the other items and at the last second pulled it up to her nose and inhaled deeply as tears cascaded down her face. Her brain kept telling her hands to toss it but her heart kept reign over them and held it to her face. Finally she reached out her hand over the washer and just before she dropped it her other hand took hold of the washer lid and closed it. She walked out into the kitchen and pulled a freezer bag out of her cupboard and opened it and stuffed the pillowcase into it and then sealed it shut. She walked into her bedroom and sat down at her makeup table. She sighed as she reached down and opened the bottom left drawer and looking at the lockbox in it she laid the freezer bag into the drawer beside it and then closed the drawer.

She got up and walked over to her closet and opened the door. She saw the four shirts and pants Walter always kept at her place for the last year. She pulled the lightest blue shirt out, holding it up she stared at it. She stripped down to just her panties and took the shirt off its hanger and slid it on. She shuddered as the material caressed her skin and she hugged herself tightly as tears filled her eyes.

* * *

Happy pulled up outside of Paige's place and turned off her truck. They got out of the truck and Happy looked at Toby, "So do we tell Paige about what is going on at the Garage?"

Toby shook his head, "If she knew Walter could be in danger she'd run right over there and ruin what Walter has already gone through. We've all got to stay away from Walter for this to work."

Sylvester rubbed the back of his neck, "Guys, I don't know about this, it doesn't seem right."

Toby nodded, "I understand. Look we didn't plan this, but with my new found insight on Walt, it's too good of an opportunity to pass up since the damage is already done and it's the best way to help him. Within a month of getting this company running Walt will finally come around, trust me."

Sylvester looked at Happy and she just shrugged.

Ralph's teacher sat watching him as he passively went about his morning. His homework was impeccable as always but there was such a sorrowful gravity about him today. The other children were shying away from him even more than normal and it was causing her heart to break.

* * *

Paige jumped when she heard the knocking on her door. She quickly slid her pants back on and quickly buttoned the shirt up and walked out and looked out the peephole and saw Happy and the guys. Paige sighed and opened the door, "Hey guys." She stepped back and they entered, Sylvester saw the pain and weariness on her face.

Toby grinned, "Nice shirt." *oof* Toby doubled over grabbing his stomach.

Paige just looked at him, "If you are here to be a smart ass you can just leave. It's my shirt."

Toby looked at her, "Oh really?" Toby reached out and grabbed the corners of her shoulders and pulled the shirt move than two inches away from her skin on each side.

She slapped his hands off and walked over and started to sit down in the recliner that Walter had bought them and the memories of sitting on his lap in the chair came to mind and as tears filled her eyes again she stepped over and sat down on the couch.

Happy sat down next to her, "How you doing?"

Paige just shook her head.

"Sorry about my comment Paige, but you know that isn't good for you right?" Toby asked.

Paige shrugged. The buzzer on the washing machine went off and she got up and walked to the kitchen and into the utility room.

"Doc, this isn't good. You really sure about this plan, cause the breakup looks like it's killing her." Happy said.

Toby nodded, "It's not going to be easy but I am positive it will work."

Paige threw a dryer sheet into the dryer after putting the bedclothes in and started the dryer. She stopped as she walked back into the kitchen, "You guys want a Walter or something?"

All three of them turned and looked at her, "What? No one ever offered you water before?" Paige asked exasperated.

"Oh, is that what you said? We thought you said Walter." Toby said.

Paige shook her head, "Clean your ears out then. So do you want some or not?"

All three of them nodded and she opened the fridge and got out four waters and brought them over and handed them out and sat back down. "Well, sit down already." She said to Toby and Sylvester.

As Sylvester started to sit in the recliner he saw a tear run down her cheek and he looked around but not seeing another chair he slowly sat down on the very edge.

They all sat there for several minutes, Paige was the only one to open her water and drink. She looked at her friends just sitting there staring. "I'm fine guys, what did you come over for already."

Happy and Sylvester looked at Toby as he spoke. "We realize you got a lot going on right now but we have a proposition for you. We form our own problem solving company, equal partners."

Paige stared at Toby like he'd grown three heads. Finally she looked down at the coffee table, "I'm not ready for this." Paige said as another tear coursed its way down her cheek.

"We've even selected a name, Centipede Partners." Sylvester said enthusiastically.

Happy was becoming uncomfortable as she felt the emotion pouring off of Paige, "Maybe we should just go for now and give you some time to think about it."

Paige wiped at her face and nodded.

Happy was the first one to stand and walk over to the door followed closely by Toby, Sylvester sat there for a moment looking at Paige and finally stood up; "C-can I give you a hug Paige?"

Paige nodded slowly and stood up as Sylvester came over and hugged her. Paige closed and locked the door after they left and walked over and curled up on the couch and cried.

* * *

At lunch Ralph was left completely by himself at the lunch table, the other kids somehow sensing his sadness and not wanting to be a part of it had crammed in at other tables. Ralph hardly noticed as he was completely preoccupied by how it felt his entire life had completely crashed worse than the plane on the island. Since he wasn't eating anyway his teacher came up and asked him to follow her. She took him to the counselor's office and sat down to wait with him. "Ralph, is there anything you'd like to tell me? Is everything okay at home?"

Ralph broke down and hugged onto his teacher fiercely and cried hard. His teacher broke down with him at his pain, hugging him back tightly. "My dear little man, what's wrong?" She asked.

"My Mom and Dad broke up," Ralph finally choked out in between his tears.

* * *

Walter came down the stairs from the loft tying his tie as he looked out and saw Cabe and Florence standing there. "Good, you're both here; it's time for Scorpion 2.0 to go make the job pitch for the A&L software upgrade."

Cabe looked at him, "You okay son?"

"Yep, fine." Walter grabbed his jacket and headed for the door. Cabe looked at Florence and she just shook her head as they turned to follow.

"So you see Mr. Biggs, Scorpion 2.0 is a much leaner and more efficient version of itself. I can promise you we'll have your software upgrade done right and on time." Walter smiled.

Mr. Biggs nodded his head, "While I know your reputation Mr. O'Brien I am sure you can handle the upgrade competently I'm just not sure you are a good fit to do the job."

Walter's smiled disappeared, "I don't understand."

"Yes, I know your skill at programming is probably unmatched but your reputation at rubbing people the wrong way is legendary. Without the young woman who always acted as an intermediary I can't see how you can do this job without upsetting my employees and while I need this done, I need my employees more than I need you to do it." Mr. Biggs told him.

Walter's face got angry, "So to keep some low level pencil pushers happy you'd rather have a sub par job on your software? That's the stupidest thing I have ever heard."

Cabe stepped up and whispered, "Walt, pump the brakes."

"No, no, don't pump the brakes, this just proves my point. Good day Scorpion." Mr. Biggs turned away.

"That's Scorpion 2.0" Walter told him.

Mr. Biggs just flicked his hand at him.

Walter stormed out of the office building and as he arrived at Cabe's SUV he threw the file folder he'd had all his notes and documents for the job in and the papers went flying all over the parking lot. Cabe slowly stepped up to him as Florence walked around trying to gather up all the papers. "I don't want to hear it Cabe."


	4. Chapter 4

Cabe stared at Walter for several minutes and then went to help Florence gather the other documents. Walter put his arms on the side of Cabe's SUV and put his forehead against them. Cabe looked at Florence after they'd caught the last piece of paper, "Have you seen anything at night that's suspicious? A car that hasn't been around before or anyone strange walking around that didn't use to?"

Florence's face went white in fear but slowly shook no. Cabe looked at her strangely, "You okay kid?"

"S-sorry, the thought of someone stalking around the building, really spooked me for a moment." Florence told him.

Cabe nodded, "Well keep an eye out if you can and call me if you do or find the agent who will be watching the building at night, someone has been messing with Walt and I'm going to put my foot up their ass when I catch them. No matter who they are."

Florence nodded as she took the papers from Cabe, "Oh, Homeland is going to be watching?"

Cabe nodded.

"Will do," Florence told him as she walked over to the SUV and waited for Cabe to unlock the doors.

Cabe's phone rang and he looked down and saw it was Allie; he smiled as he pressed answer. "Hey Beautiful," Cabe said.

Allie smiled, "Hey Handsome, I was thinking. Since you said Walter wasn't eating I could swing by Kovelsky's and get that dish he likes so much and some food for us and we eat with him after I get off work."

Cabe smiled, "That sounds like a great idea. He just bombed the job bid."

"Poor Walter, what do you want and what's that dish he likes so much?" Allie asked.

"I'll take a double cheese burger with bacon and tomato. Walt likes the fermented fish." Cabe told her.

"Well with everything going on I guess I'll let the cheese burger slide this time Mr. Gallo." Allie teased.

Cabe laugh, "Thank you Ms. Jones. See you in a few hours."

* * *

Paige woke up a couple of hours later and got up and walked to the hall closet and got new linen out and went to Ralph's room and stripped his bed and remade it. As she stood up with his dirty bedclothes she noticed she'd missed his telescope was laying on the floor. She dropped the bedclothes and walked over and picked it up and saw broken glass on the floor. She turned it around and saw the main lens had been smashed. She examined the housing and saw a dent in it. She saw damage on the window sill as she looked around and she compared the two and it looked like a perfect match up. Her eyes closed as she recalled hearing something while taking her shower this morning but Ralph said it came from outside. "Damn it Ralph," she swore.

She laid the telescope back down and picked up the bedclothes and put them in the washer and got her bedclothes out of the dryer and made her bed. She walked back out into the front room and looked at the recliner, she used the anger about the telescope and grabbed the recliner and dragged it into her bedroom, struggling to get it through the doorway and then pushed it into the far corner of the room. She grabbed the sweeper and began sweeping the front room and her bedroom and the hallway. She heard the washer shut off so she went and swapped the bedclothes and then checked the hamper and started a load of regular laundry.

* * *

Walter stormed into the Garage and toward his desk and stopped by the coffee table and he stooped and picked it up and threw it into Happy's workbench where it smashed into several pieces. "That isn't going to help Walt." Cabe told him.

Walter turned and glared at him and then walked on over to his desk. Florence sat the papers down on Paige's old desk and said goodbye and left for her lab. After she entered she walked over and got the bag holding the burner phone out of the flower pot and pulled the phone out and hit redial. "Homeland is going to have an agent on duty watching the Garage." Florence said when the phone was picked up.

"As expected, keep it up," Collins said and hung up.

Florence sighed as she put the phone back in the bag and sealed it then put it back into the flower pot.

* * *

Ralph slowly entered their home and saw his Mom sitting at the dining room table. He could tell by the look on her face she was upset. He walked over and sat his backpack on the table and sat down and looked at her. "Remember when I came out of the shower an asked you about the noise I heard this morning? You told me it came from outside?" Paige asked him.

Ralph sighed and nodded.

"Imagine my surprise when I changed your bed this afternoon and found your telescope busted. What's going on?" Paige asked.

Ralph shrugged.

Paige instantly got upset, "Do you know how much that cost?"

Ralph got mad and yelled, "You broke my last one with no problem."

"I had to in order to save Wal…him." Paige yelled.

"There's always an excuse for you isn't there?" Ralph yelled.

"That's enough young man, you get the dust pan and broom and clean up the big pieces and then get in there with the sweeper and sweep your whole room before dinner." Paige told him.

Ralph jumped up and ran into his bedroom and slammed the door. Paige sighed, 'I really don't need this right now,' she thought.

* * *

Toby and Happy entered their house and Toby jumped onto their couch and Happy walked over and got two Dr Shazs out of the fridge and brought them over and sat down next to him and dug out her pocket knife and used it to open the bottles and passed him one.

"You really sure about this plan of yours Fungus, Paige doesn't seem like she is too far from breaking herself." Happy said.

Toby took a swig and nodded, "It's going to get worse before it gets better, but trust me, one month, maybe two and Walt's EQ will reset and he'll be a new man."

"What about whoever is messing with Walter? You think we should go and watch over the place tonight?" Happy asked.

Toby grinned, "Sounds like a date."

Happy laughed and then clinked her bottle into his.

* * *

Walter sat at his desk, once again just staring off. Cabe walked over and turned on a few lights, especially those in the kitchen then they heard a car pull up and a door shut. A few moments later the door opened up and Allie walked in carrying bags from Kovelsky's. Cabe smiled and walked over and embraced her and kissed her taking the bags, "Come on Walter, soups on."

Cabe sat the bags on the table and pulled a chair out for Allie. After she sat down he turned and saw Walter still at his desk. He kissed Allie's cheek and walked over to Walter. "Walt, come on, you haven't eaten lately, Allie got your favorite."

"I'm not hungry." Walter told him.

"Son, either you get up and come in here and eat and socialize with us or I am calling an ambulance." Cabe warned him.

Walter glared at him but slowly he stood up and walked into the kitchen and sat down. "It's good seeing you Walter; Cabe told me about everything, I am so sorry." Allie told him.

Walter nodded, "Thank you for dinner."

"You're welcome. You know, if you want, you are always welcome to come have dinner with us. Or we could bring dinner over and eat with you," Allie told him.

* * *

Ralph didn't come out for dinner when Paige called him so she walked back to his door and opened it and saw the telescope still on the floor. "Ralph, dinner is ready, now get the broom and dustpan and clean that broken glass up right now young man."

Ralph glared at Paige but got up and walked out to get the broom and pan and cleaned it up. He dumped the broken pieces into his trash can and picked up the telescope and carried it out and put it by the door and then went over and grabbed the sweeper and dragged it into his room and swept the area around the window until all the glass was up. He turned off the sweeper and looked back and saw his Mom smiling at him and she gestured and he slowly walked over and she hugged him and together they walked into the dinning room and had dinner.

* * *

Cabe and Allie said goodnight to Walter and walked out of the Garage, they saw the on duty agent sitting in his car and walked across the street and introduced themselves before leaving.

Walter walked up to the loft and looked around and he could see Paige all over the place. He walked into his bedroom and there on his bed he could see her sleeping. He walked over and lay down beside her, he smiled as he inhaled deeply the scent of her hair and her perfume enticed him. He reached out and as his hand came into contact with her shoulder she faded away from his eyes. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he tried to fall asleep.

* * *

Happy and Toby pulled up outside of the Garage just before midnight and Toby pulled up the little cooler they brought and got out a couple of Dr Shaz colas and handed one to Happy. He pulled out the paper plates and opened the pizza box between them and got a piece out and put it on his plate as he handed Happy a separate plate. She pulled out a piece of pizza and put it on her plate as Toby closed the box. The agent had observed them pull up and he quietly got out of his car and walked over and shined his light into the cab scaring them both. "Who are you and what are you doing here?" He asked.

"Damn man, give me a heart attack. I'm Toby Curtis and this is my wife Happy, someone has been vandalizing our friend's place and we came to watch over the place. Who are you?"

"Homeland agent Douglas, I'm here to watch over this place." As he surveyed the inside of the truck and not seeing any paint. "So just pack it in and head on out."

Happy looked at him, "Got some ID? I'm not just going to accept some stranger's word for being law enforcement."

He whipped out his badge and showed them and they both nodded, "Okay, we'll leave this up to you, for now." Happy told him. She put her slice of pizza back in the box and started her truck and then left.

* * *

Ralph had been difficult after dinner especially when he realized that Paige was wearing one of Walter's shirts. He became very belligerent about it but Paige finally got him to do his homework and take his shower. She sat down on the edge of his bed as he slept. "I love you so much Ralphy, I'm sorry this is so hard for you. It's tearing me apart from both ends." She bent over and kissed his cheek and then got up and walked out into the front room. Paige lay down on the couch wishing one of Walter's shirts hadn't been washed as she lay there when she thought of the pillowcase. She got up and ran into her bedroom and then she saw the recliner and slowly walked over and she sat down in it and scooted back and put the foot up and the back down and she closed her eyes and inhaled and she smiled as his face came to her mind and then she remembered and she began to cry until she fell asleep.

* * *

Florence's alarm went off and she quickly got up and shut it off. She put on her dark sweats and went out onto the roof. She stepped to the side and carefully looked out and she quickly spotted the agent in his car. She then made her way downstairs and opened her flammable cabinet and pulled out a neon paint can. She stopped by her lab table and put on a pair of nylon gloves and got a small vial off of it. She slipped out her door and made her way around to the alley on the other side of the street and got as close as she dared to the agent's car and seeing the side window open she tossed the vial, it hit the side of the car and instantly turned into a gas and the agent fled his car but before he got three feet he succumbed to the gas and fell to the street unconscious. She walked up and carefully dragged him as best she could behind his car and then walked over to the building and painted a new message. She heard an engine and she looked down the street seeing a car headed towards them, she quickly ran around the other side of the Garage and disappeared around the back side before reaching her side and slipping inside.

Florence ran for her bathroom and got sick, after she'd recovered she locked the paint can up and went back upstairs and changed into her night clothes when she heard several sirens and lights flashing outside. She sighed as she got back into bed and she sat there with her back against the headboard, her knees up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them rocking back and forth.

* * *

Cabe groaned as his phone began ringing. He reached over and picked it up and answered it, "Agent Gallo. Do what? Is he okay? Alright I'm on my way."

Allie stirred, "Cabe?"

"The agent outside of the Garage was attacked, some kind of gas knocked him out and they tagged the Garage again." Cabe told her as he got out of bed.

Allie turned on her bedside lamp and looked at her phone, "Three AM?" She looked at Cabe as he threw on some sweats.

"Try and go back to sleep sweetie. I love you," Cabe told her.

Allie smiled, "Be careful, I love you too."

Cabe arrived on scene and he saw the new message, "No one loves you!" Cabe swore as his blood pressure leapt. He swung into his regular parking spot. The lead agent came over, "Agent Gallo?"

Cabe nodded as he flashed his badge and closed the door on his SUV, "How's Douglas?"

"I'm agent Markus, he's at the hospital, the Dr says he'll be okay, it was close; he was apparently allergic to the gas or some component in it. If it hadn't been for his replacement arriving when he did it would have been a different story." He pointed at the car and Cabe saw what looked like small pieces of glass reflecting the flashing lights.

"Turn those flashing lights off, I don't want Walter to be disturbed. Are those glass shards?" Cabe asked.

"Turn off the flashing lights," Markus yelled and they were quickly turned off. "Yea, we think the perp threw a small vial, looks like it impacted here on the door."

Cabe nodded as he looked at the message again, "Please tell me Walter hasn't come out here."

Markus shook his head, "No one has seen him yet."

Cabe nodded, "I'm going to go in and get the paint and try and get this covered before he sees it."

"Let us get a few pictures for the report before you start." Markus told him.

Cabe looked over and saw the door open and Walter stepped out rubbing his eyes, "Damn it." Cabe yelled, "Walter, get back inside right now." Walter saw Cabe and then turned and saw the new message and Cabe watched helplessly as his head slumped and he reached out, opening the door and went back inside the Garage.


	5. Chapter 5

Happy sat at her workbench connecting the carburetor to the knucklehead and Toby was walking out of the kitchen with a Dr Shaz when suddenly their front door burst open and five Homeland agents followed in on the heels of Cabe. Toby screamed in fright and Happy nearly fell off her stool, Cabe grabbed Toby and slammed him up against the wall with his gun in his face and his forearm in his neck. "CABE," Happy yelled and started to run over when the other agents leveled their guns at her. She stopped cold and threw her arms up. Two of the agents restrained her as the other three moved throughout their house searching. Toby was struggling to breathe, "Damn it Cabe, your choking him!" Happy screamed.

Slowly Cabe realized what he was doing and he dropped his arm from his neck and stepped back. Toby collapsed to the floor coughing and one of the agents stepped up and restrained him. Cabe was breathing hard, "Why'd you guys do it?"

"What the hell are you talking about? Do what?" Happy yelled.

"Guys, this is serious now. An attack on a Homeland agent, almost killing him, you need to be up front on this." Cabe told her.

"You stupid bastard, Toby's scared of his own shadow. We didn't attack anyone; now tell us what the hell is going on." Happy continued to yell.

Cabe looked at her, "Agent Douglas was attacked a little before three AM this morning. According to him, you two were at the Garage around midnight."

"Yea we were; that's because you didn't bother to tell us an agent was going to be there to watch the place. We went to watch over the Garage and see if we could catch who was doing it. But we left when your agent told us to and came home and we haven't left since. Check our damn security feeds." Happy almost spit at him.

"Show me," Cabe told her.

Happy led him into Toby's office/storage room. "You want to take these off?" Happy looked at Cabe. Cabe stepped up and cut the zip tie. Happy rubbed her wrists as she stepped over to the computer and let him watch as she hit rewind and they watched as the footage backed up to just after Midnight and the her truck pulled up onto the driveway. She hit play and got up as another agent sat down and carefully fast forward and they never saw them exit the house after they entered.

"Agent Gallo, there is some paint here, but none of it neon. And there are just normal automotive and cleaning compounds here." An agent entered the room and told him.

Cabe let out a sigh of relief, "I'm sorry kid, all this happening to Walter and now an agent being attacked and you guys being seen at the scene a couple of hours earlier." Cabe looked apologetic.

"I get that Cabe, but we've known each other for five years now. Don't you think we deserve a little goodwill? Did you have to bust in like the Gestapo and almost kill my husband? I thought we were friends?" Happy told him driving in every nail she could think of making Cabe feel smaller and smaller.

Cabe just nodded, "Free Toby," he told the other agent.

Cabe followed the agent out and saw a bruise already forming on Toby's neck as he was freed from the zip tie, "Toby, I'm sorry. I over reacted."

Happy walked over to check on Toby, "I really am sorry guys, send me the bill for your door and I'll make it right." Cabe told them.

Happy glared at him, "Just leave Cabe."

* * *

Agent Markus spent nearly a half hour questioning Walter about everything that had happened before he finally left the Garage.

* * *

Paige had gotten back home from dropping Ralph at school and looking at the kitchen floor she broke out her mop bucket and cleaning solution and began to mop the utility room, as she reached the kitchen Paige heard a knock on her door and she put the mop into the corner of the kitchen and stepped over and looked out the peephole seeing two men in overcoats, "Can I help you?" Paige called out.

Both men pulled out their badges, "Homeland, agents Markus and Stevens, can we talk with you Ms. Dineen?"

Paige frowned but unlocked the door and stepped back as she opened it. Both men stepped inside, "Thank you, Ms. Dineen, can you tell us where you were last night?"

Paige continued to frown, "I was here with my son until we both went to bed why?"

"Do you know anything about the attack on a Homeland agent last night at Scorpion headquarters?" Markus asked her.

Paige's face went deathly white as her hand came up to her face, "Cabe? Oh God no, is Cabe okay?" Tears welled up in her eyes.

Cabe came through the door at that moment and Paige took one look and rushed into his arms. "Oh God Cabe, they scared me, I thought something happened to you." She began crying into his shoulder.

"As you can see, Agent Gallo is fine, he wasn't the one attacked." Markus told her.

Cabe glared at Markus, "I told you to let me handle this."

"You know I am the agent in charge of this and I will decide how the investigation proceeds." Markus told him. "Can anyone confirm your whereabouts Ms Dineen?"

Paige looked up into Cabe's eyes, "I'm so glad you are okay." She turned and looked at Markus, "Well my son until about nine PM when he went to sleep, other than that, the complex has security cameras; they should show I hadn't left my home since I got back from taking my son to school yesterday until this morning when I took him to school."

Markus nodded, "I've got a court order allowing us to look around, see if there is any neon spray paint or any chemicals that could be used to render someone unconscious."

Paige looked at Cabe, "Are you serious?"

Cabe nodded, "It was an attack on a Federal agent, that's big trouble. I know you didn't do it kid, they aren't going to find anything so don't sweat it."

Paige gestured and watched the two agents move around looking through all the obvious spots. Cabe noticed the telescope by the door and frowned. He jerked his thumb over, "What happened?"

Paige sighed, "Ralph is upset with me and he busted it in frustration."

Cabe nodded, "You okay?"

"Some hours are better than others. Lord I miss him Cabe," Paige told him.

"He's really missing you too. It's tearing him apart. I think Ralph's silence has been almost as bad." Cabe told her.

"Oh? I thought they were still talking. Ralph told me that Walter explained what happened the other night." Paige frowned.

Cabe shook his head, "No, after Walt told him what happened, Ralph hasn't said anything."

"Ms Dineen, what's in this?" Markus asked as he came out of her bedroom.

Paige turned, "That's private."

"Kid, the court order says any place a can of spray paint might be hidden, you'll have to open it." Cabe told her.

Paige huffed and took the lockbox and entered the code, "It's just an old phone with a keepsake on it." She opened the lid and showed them.

"We'll have to take it in for examination." Markus told her.

Paige looked frightened and slammed the lid shut and stepped back to Cabe. "You can't take it, it's not a can of paint and it isn't covered by the court order." Cabe told him.

"Under the patriot act I can take it if I want to." Markus told him.

"Cabe? It's just a video of when Ralph was born, it's irreplaceable. The phone doesn't even have any service." Paige pleaded.

"Its okay kid, he's not taking it." Cabe stepped in front of Paige and stared at Markus, "You know this doesn't have anything to do with what happened. Why are you being a jerk?"

Stevens came out of the utility room just then, "I didn't find any paint and no chemicals besides normal household cleaners."

Markus stared at Cabe for several minutes, "Well I suppose we can let this go for now, provided the security camera feed can prove Ms Dineen was telling the truth about when she has been outside."

Cabe turned as Markus and Stevens left keeping Paige behind him until they left. Paige hugged him fiercely, "Thank you Cabe." He could feel her convulse for several minutes.

* * *

Florence carefully stepped out her lab and walked down the sidewalk towards the Garage entrance where she was stopped by an agent. "Excuse me Ms, who are you?" The agent demanded.

"Flo-Florence Tipton, I'm a member of Scorpion 2.0, I was coming over to see if there was any work today." Florence told him.

The agent checked his sheet, "Have you got any ID?"

Florence took her ID out of her hip pocket and handed it to the agent. After scrutinizing it for several minutes he handed it back, "You don't know anything about what happened out here last night do you?"

She looked at the side of the door and saw the fresh paint and shook her head, "I'm guessing someone tagged the building again?"

"They also assaulted a Homeland agent; he almost died from a reaction to the gas they used." The agent saw her gasp and her hand covered her mouth.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, is he okay?" Florence asked.

The agent nodded and opened the door for her and she turned and stepped inside.

As the door closed behind her she let out her breath and just stood there for a moment. She called out, "W-Walter?"

"Three of our clients have called and cancelled our contracts." Walter told her. "They didn't come right out and say it, but apparently word has gotten out that Paige isn't with us anymore and they don't want to put up with me without her." He flung his tablet back past the kitchen and she ducked as she heard it hit one of the support beams followed by lots of glass shards hitting the floor.

"Ma-Maybe I could call them back? I could tell them I would be your liaison person as well as your chemist?" Florence suggested as she moved closer.

Walter nodded, "You can try that if you want." He held out the job sheets and she took them and walked over to Paige's desk and looked back at Walter and he just watched as she slowly sat down and picked up the phone.

* * *

Cabe stormed out of Paige's place and got up in Markus's face. "What the hell do you mean by terrorizing Paige?"

Markus laughed, "Like you shoving a gun into Toby's face and nearly choking him to death?"

Cabe stared at him, "That's different, he could have been involved, there's no way Paige would have done any of this."

Markus looked at Stevens and nodded towards their car and after he got inside he turned back to Cabe, "Look Cabe, you know these kids, I trust your instincts, but I also have to gather some independent feelings to do my job properly. I've also got to make it look good for Carlson, you got to be careful man. You know Carlson hates you; I'll do everything to protect you and the kids as long as they aren't involved. Go back in and tell Paige I am sorry and not to worry about her phone. Why don't you see if she'll let you take it home to keep it safe until we get to the bottom of this?"

Cabe shook his head, "Man, I thought you'd slipped a gear Ted, all the formality at the scene and all of this."

Ted laughed, "You got plenty of enemies, if they knew we were friends I would have been yanked off this assignment in a snap. Hey, just make sure you keep up the animosity when we interact. Matter of fact, put on your scowl and throw a punch."

"You bastard," Cabe growled and threw a right cross as Ted turned his head just a split second before impact and then grabbed his chin.

Stevens jumped out of the car and Ted waved him off. "You know Gallo, now I know why people hate you. You better get your emotions in check or you're going to be riding a desk." Ted opened the passenger door and he looked up seeing Paige watching and he slowly winked at Cabe so she could see it. Stevens slowly got in and started the car and they drove off.

Cabe watched as they left and then turned and went back up to Paige's. She opened the door just as he got there, "Cabe?!" Paige hugged him. "What's going on?

After Cabe closed the door, "Ted's actually an old friend and was putting on a good show, mostly for Carlson's benefit. He said to tell you he was sorry for pushing but you and your phone are safe. He said if you wanted for me to take it and keep it at my place for you until all this is over."

Paige just held onto the box and shook her head no.

* * *

Florence tried her best but she wasn't exactly personable herself and she was a poor substitute for Paige and none of the clients cared to reconsider. "I'm sorry Walter, I couldn't get anywhere with them." Florence told him but a simple look at his face would have told her it wasn't necessary to say anything.

Walter pulled up the business bank account and double checked everything and sighed. Without the salary for the others he had enough to keep the doors open another ten months baring any new business. He saw he had an alert so he clicked it and saw it was time for the bank to cut the checks for everyone. At first he thought about declining the drafts but as he sat there with his finger on the mouse button to click deny he just couldn't seem to push his finger down. He moved the mouse over to approve and clicked. He logged out and stood up and stuffed his hands into his pockets and walked over to the kitchen, he stood there for several minutes and finally poured a cup of coffee.

"D-Do you need me to do anything else? If not I'll be in my lab if something comes up." Florence told him.

Walter just shook his head, "Enjoy the rest of your day."

"You too," Florence told him as she opened the door and stepped out.

* * *

Cabe showed up at Sylvester's about thirty minutes after Markus and Stevens had gotten there. Sylvester was obviously intimidated completely and Cabe and Markus maintained their hostility. Cabe watched as they left, "Sly, tell me you didn't do this." Cabe finally said.

"I promise you Cabe, other than going to see Happy and Toby and then Paige; I haven't been out of my apartment." Sylvester told him.

"Why'd you go to see Paige?" Cabe asked him.

"Oh, Toby came up with the idea that we're going to start our own problem solving company." Sylvester told him excitedly until he saw Cabe's face darken.

"Are you kidding me?" Cabe yelled.


	6. Chapter 6

"But the place is swarming with Homeland agents. I won't be able to write the message. The agent they had on duty last night was sensitive to the gas I used and nearly died of an allergic reaction." Florence said into the phone.

"That was your screw up, stay on target." Collins yelled before hanging up.

Florence sighed and then hid the phone again.

* * *

Happy had put a new stud into the doorframe and just finished notching the post and putting in the striker plates so their door could be closed and secured. Happy moved over to the couch where Toby was laying. She moved the arm Toby was holding the ice pack to his throat with so she could see the bruising around his neck, "Damn, Cabe really did a number on you."

"Tell me about it," Toby said hoarsely. "My throat is burning with every single breath or swallow."

"I still can't believe he thought we had something to do with that." Happy said with heat in her voice.

"Well logically it was a sound judgment call but he could have approached it differently." Toby told her.

Happy shook her head, "To hell with logic, what about loyalty? Are you really trying to give him a pass? We've all been there for each other over and over."

Toby nodded, "Yea, but we hurt Walter, so Cabe is feeling that, plus that agent got hurt, almost died, it's not surprising."

* * *

Daniel walked slowly up to Ralph as he stood waiting on his ride home. "Hello Ralph." Ralph heard the robotic voice and turned to see his autistic friend.

"Hi Daniel," Ralph replied.

"You've seen so sad the last few days. I didn't want to disturb you but you are my friend, are you okay?" Daniel typed out on his communicator.

Ralph nodded, "My Mom and Dad broke up."

"I'm sorry," Daniel typed out.

"Thank you, you are my friend too." Ralph told him as the silver sedan pulled up and Ralph heard the horn honk and he turned to see his neighbor who his Mom splits car rides with. "I got to go Daniel, see you tomorrow."

Daniel watched as Ralph got in the car and they drove away as Daniel's mother walked up behind him.

* * *

Toby's phone began ringing; Happy picked it up off the table, "Its Sly."

"Go ahead," Toby told her.

Happy hit answer and hit speaker, "Hey Sly."

"Happy, oh man, I think I messed up, Cabe just left here mad as hell." Sylvester said.

"What's he mad about?" Toby asked.

"He'd asked me about where I'd been the last couple of days and I told him I'd been home other than going to see you two and Paige. He asked why I went to see Paige and I told him about your idea for Centipede Partners." Sylvester told them.

"Not good," Happy said.

"Thanks for the heads up Sly," Toby said and Happy hung up the phone.

"Well just in case, I'll wait until tomorrow afternoon to paint the new wood. Just in case Cabe comes busting in here again." Happy said.

"I certainly hope not." Toby said with wide eyes.

* * *

Ralph entered their home and walked past his Mom and put his backpack on the coffee table. He opened it and took out his homework and sat down and began working on it.

Paige watched him walk right by without even acknowledging her. "Welcome home Ralph," she told him.

Ralph stopped and looked back at her, "Thanks."

Paige shook her head as she continued to prep dinner.

* * *

Cabe pulled up outside of Allie's work and turned off the SUV and sat waiting. It wasn't long before the employee door opened and she emerged and he smiled for the first time since leaving Sylvester's. He got out and walked around to the passenger side and kissed Allie and opened the door for her. "Why thank you Mr. Gallo," Allie said sweetly.

Cabe looked at her, "Only because it's you." Allie laughed as Cabe walked around and got into the SUV.

Allie noted he was frowning as he started the SUV, "What's wrong Cabe?"

Cabe pulled out of the parking lot and into traffic, "I just left Sly's a short bit ago. Those jackasses are actually going to form a problem solving company and directly compete against Walter."

"What? That doesn't sound like the guys, even Paige?" Allie asked.

Cabe nodded, "Apparently, Sly said they'd gone over yesterday to talk to her about it."

Allie shook her head, "This whole thing just keeps getting worse and worse. How's that agent doing?"

Cabe smiled, "He's been released from the hospital and is back on full duty. Hey, if you don't mind I thought after we eat we could swing by Kovelsky's and grab some food for Walter and take it by."

"Of course I don't mind Cabe, if you'd like, we could just get food and take it over there and eat with him." Allie told him with a smile.

Cabe shook his head with a smile, "We still need time for just us. Plus it probably pains him to see us being romantic."

Allie turned that around in her head, "You could be right about that, well, why don't we start having lunch together and then we can take dinners over and make sure Walter eats in the evenings? We could save the romantic things until after we leave." She grinned mischievously at him.

Cabe laughed.

* * *

Paige put the casserole into the oven and walked into the front room and picked up the pages of work Ralph already had done and start reading through them as she sat down on the couch. "So Cabe was by today, he said you hadn't talked with Wal…him since that night I quit Scorpion."

"I haven't," he answered.

Paige asked, "Why is that?"

Ralph finished the last sheet and sat it down and turned to look at her with tears in his eyes. "Because you said we had to cut it off," he screamed and ran into his bedroom slamming the door.

Paige blinked several times as she thought over his words and sighed as she recalled telling him they had to do it just like Drew cut them off.

* * *

Cabe and Allie walked holding hands from the restaurant to his SUV, "I think that was the best dinner date we've had so far." Cabe told her.

Allie smiled, "Better than your double cheese burger with bacon last night?"

Cabe laughed, "Hey, that wasn't a dinner date. We had company."

Allie laughed.

* * *

Paige watched Ralph slowly eat his dinner, "How are your studies going with Caltech?"

Ralph shrugged, "Fine."

"Is the course work complicated?" Paige asked.

Ralph shook his head, "Sylvester took over checking my work and he said I was doing great."

Paige smiled, "Your counselor called earlier, he told me they were all very impressed with you and he put you up for a scholarship for next year, I'm so impressed by you baby, to think you will have your bachelor's at thirteen. Kind of seems weird for you to be in grade school at the same time huh?"

Ralph shrugged, "I guess and thanks."

"You do understand why I haven't pulled you from grade school right?" Paige asked as she ran her fingers through his hair.

Ralph shook his head.

Paige sighed, "Every since the guys helped me to see what was really going on with you and brought you out of your shell, with the way they are and the thought of you being like them scares me. I want to be sure you have the best chance to socialize so hopefully you won't have to fight as hard for your emotions."

Ralph looked at her, "You mean as much as I am like Walter." Anger flashed in his eyes.

Paige sighed, "I wasn't trying to upset you sweetie, does what I said make sense to you?" Paige asked.

* * *

Cabe flashed his badge at the agent on duty outside the Garage as he walked up and unlocked the door and entered with the sack from Kovelsky's. Cabe yelled, "Hey Walt, you here?"

The Garage was dark and quiet but Cabe's eyes finally saw Walter sitting in the dark at his desk except for the light from his laptop's screen. He walked over, "I picked you up some dinner." He placed the sack on his desk.

"You should have called, I already ate." Walter told him very coldly.

Cabe looked at him, "Oh yea? What did you have?"

Walter looked up at him, "Don't believe me?"

"Did you go get it? Fix it yourself or have it delivered?" Cabe asked.

Walter turned his eyes back towards the door.

"Walt, son, I know you're hurting, I know when you don't know what to do or something is too painful you shutdown and retreat into your mind but that isn't good son. You got to keep moving forward and to do that you got to eat. I wasn't kidding last night; if you don't start taking care of yourself I will call for an ambulance." Cabe told him with tears in his eyes.

"You do what you have to do." Walter told him.

"I love you son, I'll see you in the morning." Cabe finally told him as he backed down and left the Garage. Cabe waved at the agent and got into his SUV and they left to go to Allie's.

Allie saw the tears in Cabe's eyes, "How was he?"

Cabe shook his head, "Cold, dismissive, uncaring."

Allie nodded her head, "How about we do what I said earlier, we'll have lunches together from now on and then we'll bring dinner over and eat with him. We got to keep reaching out to him."

Cabe took her hand in his and squeezed it as he looked at her with gratitude in his eyes.

* * *

Happy looked at Toby as he lay on the couch, "How's your throat?"

"Not hurting as much," Toby told her. "I think we should get Sly tomorrow and go talk with Paige again and see if she is ready to do this."

"I don't know about this Doc, Walter has suffered a lot already and then add the messages, I think this is really going to push him over the edge." Happy told him.

"But that's just what he needs, I realize it seems radical but I think it's going to take something radical to get through his fear. Handholding has only brought him so far, if we can get him to break through it then he'll be able to give more to Paige." Toby told her.

Happy shook her head, "But what if in conjunction with what is going on it's too much, what if he breaks and completely regresses or tries to kill himself?"

"Walter would never try that, and I am confident in my analysis that he might regress temporarily but when the breakthrough happens, he'll emerge a new man." Toby told her.

Happy's eyebrow rose, "What if the new man doesn't want anything to do with Paige or us?" Happy asked.

* * *

Paige jumped and Ralph looked at his Mom as they heard a knock on the door. Paige stood up obviously shaking a little and breathing fast. She stepped over to the door and looked out and saw Daniel's Mother. Paige let out her breath as she unlocked the door and stepped back opening the door and smiled, "Good evening Jill, won't you come in?"

Jill smiled, "I can't stay; Daniel told me how sad Ralph has been the last few days and told me tonight it was because Ralph's Dad and you broke up, I'm so sorry. I can see I'm too late for tonight but I made dinner for you guys. Maybe you can have it tomorrow?" She held up a large dish of chicken noodle soup.

She saw tears in Paige's eyes as she reached out and took the dish, "Thank you Jill, this was very thoughtful of you."

Jill stepped in and gave her a hug, as she whispered, "Don't you fret or let this get you down; you're a beautiful, loving woman. You'll find Mr. Right soon enough."

Ralph's head shot up and he slammed his fork down with a scowl and left the table. Paige sighed. Jill looked horrified, "I'm sorry, I didn't think he'd hear that."

Paige shook her head, "It's okay; he really loves Walter so it's very difficult right now. Thank you again for this." She held up the dish and Jill just smiled as she left.

Paige closed the door and heard Ralph in his bedroom running the sweeper. Paige sighed as she put the dish in the fridge and began cleaning up the table and dishes.

* * *

Florence stood next to her lab table mixing a few ingredients. She carefully poured them into a dish and covered it. She carried it over to the center of the floor and got her fire extinguisher and sprayed it for several seconds. She put the extinguisher down and checked the dish and found it had thickened into putty. She put the extinguisher up and carried the dish back to her table and carefully pulled the putty out. Rolling it into a cylinder she cut off about two inches and put the rest into a fire proof bag and sealed it and then put it into her flammable cabinet.

* * *

Walter finally got up and took the sack into the kitchen and put it into the fridge as he looked up at the ceiling over head, the floor of the loft he sighed as he turned and walked back over to his desk and sat down. He pulled the laptop over and opened his word processor.

"Last Will and Testament,

I Walter O'Brien being of sound mind and body attest on this day that this be my final will. In the event of my death I hereby leave all my worldly goods and control of my company Scorpion to Ralph Dineen with the exception of my mementos and Ferret Bueller, his Mom Paige Dineen will have control over everything until his eighteenth birthday. I leave my mementos to the only person I know who will understand their meaning, Paige Dineen. I request that Cabe Gallo take Ferret Bueller as a remembrance but if he doesn't want him to find him a good home. I name Cabe Gallo as executor.

Walter O'Brien"

Walter saved it and then hit print. He got up and got the paper from the printer and after reading it over put it in a folder and left the Garage, he waved at the agent on duty and got into his car and left. Walter walked into the local UPS store and stepped up to the counter and after a few minutes got the will notarized and then he returned to the Garage and tossed the folder onto his desk he looked around the Garage and then to the Airstream. He walked over to the steps to the loft and climbed them. As he entered his bedroom he stripped off his clothes and picked up the picture that sat on his nightstand of the three of them together and he smiled as he looked at it. He sat down on the edge of the bed and propped the picture against the side of Paige's pillow and he rolled over onto his side to stare at it as he slowly cried himself to sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

**Greetings, I'm sorry this has so much angst and is depressing. It is for me as well. I can only write how the story comes across, the good thing is, if you have read Graduation you already know how it turns out. This is just the adventure on that road to there. I've been writing as fast and as much as I can trying to get to something better but the story wants to be told the way it wants to be told. I don't know when or how much happiness will be in this story probably for every small inch of happiness there with be several yards of not. At the outset I had thought I would already be past that horrible ending between Scorpion 2.0 and Centipede Partners before this chapter but here I am, 2 chapters to cover just 14 hours. I am so grateful for your feedback and your continued reading it makes the hurts of the telling easier to deal with. To the adventure! -Tim**

* * *

Florence's alarm went off at two AM and she slowly reached over and shut it off. She laid there trying to comprehend how she got to this point. The data breach that leaked her company's new proprietary process to several rivals, she sold some of her personal stock to shore up the company's stability only to have the board with a new controlling share oust her from the company. Enter Collins who promised to give her proxy over the shares he held which would give her the ability to take back her company. At first it was just simple stuff he wanted, get close to Scorpion, report back to him on what they were doing, mess with the server that was hunting him, get close to Walter and drive a wedge in between him and Paige. Now he was demanding she commit psychological attacks against him even though Scorpion was broken. Last night she committed a federal crime, harming that agent. Now she had made plastic explosives. She shuddered as she got out of bed wondering who she really was anymore since she was going to continue his 'requests'.

She got up and put on her dark sweats and took in a deep breath. She made her way out onto the roof and carefully walked over to the edge and peeked out. It only took a moment and she saw the agent, he was parked where he could see her if she crossed the street like last night so she had to rethink her plan. She made it down into her lab and got the can of paint out along with a small jar of some liquid and then put on lab gloves and picked up the small device she had put together earlier and tucked it and the new toothbrush in its package into the small fanny pack along with a couple of double a batteries. She slipped outside her door but walked around the back of the building. She hit her watch and started the stopwatch and cut across the street to a couple of blocks over and carefully made her way over to the over pass. She walked up to one of the derelict cars and checked it and the surrounding area to make sure none of the homeless were there. She checked her stopwatch and saw it read seven minutes. She opened the plastic bag she had the device in and pulled it out and sat it in the trunk. She opened the small jar of liquid she brought with her and a new toothbrush and gently coated the outside of the device with the liquid. She pulled the batteries out of the bag and carefully inserted them into the device and watched as the time turned on. She set it to seven minutes and pressed start and quickly retraced her steps back over to the Garage and waited.

The agent had just poured a cup of coffee from his thermos when the device detonated and while the sound wasn't loud it still spooked him enough he nearly spilled his coffee. He grabbed his radio mic, "Agent Stevens to central."

"Central, go ahead." The man's voice answered back.

"Agent Stevens to central, I just heard a small explosion about two blocks from my position and I can see what looks like flames." Stevens told said.

"Central, copy that, you are clear to investigate, we'll call it into local PD." The man told him.

Stevens poured his coffee back into his thermos and started his car and drove over toward the explosion. Florence waited a moment and then moved up to the front of the Garage, she listened for a moment but not hearing anything from inside she quickly painted the new message and dodged back around the building and began looking around to be sure she didn't see anyone else she entered into her lab. Her heart was pounding so hard as she prayed no one had walked up to the car before the device detonated. She quickly put everything away and scrubbed her body down in the shower trying to remove what she imagined as filth covering her body.

Stevens drove around the car a few times checking it and the surrounding area out, "Agent Stevens to central, looks like a derelict car has been torched and I don't see anyone around."

"Central, copy that, local PD has been notified, they've been notified of your station and will contact you if they need further information, return to Scorpion HQ."

"Agent Stevens to central, copy that, returning to Scorpion HQ."

As Stevens drove back over to Scorpion HQ he heard a siren and then he saw the building had been tagged in his absence. Stevens slammed his hand against his steering wheel, "Agent Stevens to central."

"Central, go ahead."

"Agent Stevens to central, the explosion was a diversion, Scorpion HQ has been tagged in my absence. Please notified Agents Markus and Gallo."

* * *

Allie nudged Cabe, "Baby, your phone is ringing."

Cabe slowly reached over and grabbed his phone, "Agent Gallo. Are you kidding me? What the hell, alright I am on my way." Cabe swore as he hung up his phone.

Allie looked at him, "Cabe?"

"Someone used an explosive device to lure the agent at Scorpion away and tagged the building again." Cabe told her as he sat up and quickly got dressed again. "This is really starting to piss me off."

"Cabe, please be careful, this is getting scary." Allie begged him.

Cabe kissed her, "Try and get back to sleep. I love you."

Allie smiled with a twinge of fear on her lips, "I love you."

* * *

Cabe turned onto the street to Scorpion HQ and saw a number of flashing lights all over the place and then he saw the message, 'Do us a favor and DIE!' Cabe slammed on his brakes and pounded on his steering wheel in helpless frustration and rage.

He saw Ted talking to Stevens and he drove up flashing his badge at the local cop who was acting as traffic control. He shut off his SUV and jumped out, Ted saw him coming with a full head of steam. For dramatic effect he said "Oh hell, here he comes."

"Are you kidding me?! Is this what a detail under your control is capable of? Can't even stop a damn tagger?" Cabe screamed.

"Gallo, I've about had it up to here with you. You dial it down twenty notches before I have you removed from the area." Ted yelled back at him.

Cabe glared at him, "So what's the piss poor excuse tonight? The moon light was too bright?"

"No, whoever it was detonated a device back under the underpass and Stevens was directed to investigate, while he was there the tagger struck." Ted told him.

Cabe glared at Stevens who actually seemed to be quite embarrassed by the incident even though it wasn't his fault. "Just tell me Walter doesn't know about this." Cabe finally said.

"He hasn't been seen yet," Ted told him. Ted raised his voice, "Let's turn the flashing lights off guys."

Cabe nodded and then walked over to the Garage and unlocked the door and stepped in and found the paint and roller pans and rollers beside the door. He brought them out and found Stevens standing there. "Let me help Gallo, I know technically this isn't my fault, but I still feel responsible."

Cabe looked at him for a moment and finally nodded his head and handed him the roller and he stepped back in to get the other one. "I'm going to have to go get more paint; this is the end of it." Cabe said as the paint barely filled the bottom of the pan.

Stevens looked at him, "If you want to go get some I'll go ahead and paint what I can."

Cabe looked surprised but nodded his head as he turned and got into his SUV and headed for the closest 24 hour Walmart. It took Cabe about a half hour to get back with the paint, Stevens and Markus were still there waiting most of the emergency gear had departed. Both of them with their jackets off and sleeves rolled up holding the rollers. The neon was bleeding completely through the paint they had rolled out. Cabe brought over one can and opened it and poured it out as they began rolling again. Cabe brought out three more cans and put them in the Garage. "Thanks guys, I appreciate this. Walter didn't come out did he?"

Ted looked down at the ground, "I'm sorry, we tried to stop him, but he came out about ten minutes ago Gallo," Ted told him. Ted watched as Cabe's shoulders slumped and he sighed. "All I can say is, since this was used to distract Stevens, Homeland has taken the evidence from the explosion to see if we can get faster results than what local PD would. To them it's just a derelict car so they wouldn't be too quick to move on it." Ted told him.

"Thanks Markus, I appreciate that." Cabe said.

Ted laughed, "Don't go all soft on us now Gallo."

"Fine, ruin the moment." Cabe said gruffly. "It might be worth it to give some of the evidence to Florence when she wakes up, as Scorpion's resident chemist she might have thoughts about processing it that regular forensics won't," Cabe told him.

* * *

Florence came down from her loft area and put on her lab coat when she heard a knock on her door. Immediately fear crept up in her soul and she slowly walked over, "Who's there?" She called out.

"Florence Tipton, its agent Markus of Homeland."

Florence swallowed hard and unlocked the door and opened it. Ted had his badge out so she could see it. "I need to talk with you about an explosion down the street last night." Ted told her.

"O-oh, okay, I didn't hear anything, but please, come on in." Florence told him as she opened the door wider and moved back a little.

Ted stepped into her lab and looked around, "Nice place, well kind of I guess." He laughed.

"How can I help you with the explosion?" Florence asked.

Ted reached into his jacket and pulled out a small evidence bag and Florence saw some of the fragments of her device. "Our team recovered these as the explosion was used to lure an agent away from Scorpion HQ and the building was tagged again." Ted told her.

"Oh no, poor Walter, what did they write now?" Florence asked.

"Do us a favor and DIE!" Ted told her.

"This is so horrible, poor Walter must be beside himself." Florence said.

"I haven't had the chance to speak with him about it yet. Anyway, Cabe thought maybe you could examine these and give us your thoughts on it as an independent." Ted told her.

Florence reached out and took the bag and examined what was inside. "It might take a while but as long as Scorpion 2.0 doesn't have a job today I don't see why not."

"This is Scorpion's job today; I'm done playing games with this asshole. I've got two other labs conducting tests as well." Ted told her. "I'm also stepping up surveillance, multiple agents and cameras. This scumbag is going down."

"W-well as a Scorpion 2.0 job I just have to go clear it first with the boss, I hope you understand." Florence told him.

Ted looked at her and nodded as he stuck the evidence bag back into his jacket, "I'll go with you and when he gives you the okay I'll give you the bag back."

Florence nodded and walked over and opened the door and stepped out with Ted following close behind. "No one got hurt last night did they?" Florence asked while they walked over to the Garage door.

"Thankfully no, other than some pride," Ted laughed.

Florence nodded as she unlocked the Garage door and they entered. Other than the sunlight there was no other light in the Garage and Florence heard Bueller squeak. She walked over to his cage and seeing his water empty she filled the bottle and as she turned she saw the folder on Walter's desk with some paper half slid out. She looked puzzled and stepped over and saw 'Last Will and Testament'. Florence swallowed hard and opened the folder and saw that it had been notarized last night. Florence looked up at the loft, "Oh dear God no."

Ted became alarmed, "What is it?"

"H-his Will, it was notarized just last night." Florence fretted.

Ted ran over to the stairs and ran up them as Florence followed close behind. They looked in the common areas first and then moved back toward the bedrooms and Florence pointed at the door on the left. Ted grabbed the knob and turned it and pushed in as the door opened. Walter was lying on his side facing away from the room and Florence ran over with tears in her eyes, "Walter!" She screamed.

Slowly he stirred as Florence grabbed hold of him and hugged him tightly. His eyes opened quickly, "Florence?" Walter questioned.

Ted breathed a sigh of relief; he wasn't looking forward to calling Cabe about what they had feared. "Damn it Walter, don't scare people like that man."

"What are you doing up here?" Walter demanded.

"We found your Will downstairs and after the message that was painted, feared you had done something," Florence cried.

"Everyone should have a Will, now can I have some privacy so I can get up?" Walter told her with just an edge of anger to his voice.

"Wow, sure, you can have some privacy," Ted said. "Florence needs permission to work on a case for Homeland too."

Walter nodded, "That's fine, we don't have anything else today."

Ted and Florence walked out of his bedroom and downstairs, "Is he always so emotional when people are concerned about his life?" Ted asked sarcastically.

Florence shook her head, "He's always had problems expressing his emotions, he had been getting better but since Paige dumped him and quit, I'm afraid he is reverting back to how he use to be."

As they stepped out of the Garage Ted pulled the evidence bag out of his jacket and handed it to her, "Here you go, get me whatever you can as quick as you can."

Florence nodded and slowly walked back to her lab. 'Cute kid, a little quiet and dorky,' Ted thought as he watched her leave.

* * *

Paige was driving up to her parking spot after dropping Ralph and their neighbor's kid at school when she saw Happy and the guys standing on her front porch. She sighed as she parked the car. "Hey Paige," Sylvester said all excited as she got out of her car.

She forced a smile on her face, "Hey Sly." "Happy, Toby," Paige greeted them as she got to the door. She looked at Toby's throat and smiled at Happy, "Do I even want to ask?"

Happy didn't return the smile, "It's not what you think."

Paige frowned as she unlocked the door and stepped in followed by the guys. "Well then what happened?"

"Cabe slammed Toby into the wall and nearly choked him to death yesterday." Happy told her, still mad about it.

Paige looked incredulous, "What?! Why would he do that?"

"He thought we actually had something to do with the agent getting hurt yesterday. Broke in our door with five other agents and dug through everything," Happy told her.


	8. Chapter 8

Walter heard a knock on the Garage door and he walked over and opened it and found an agent standing there with a courier. He beaconed and the courier stepped in as the agent stepped away. "I need your signature on this dude," the courier told him as he looked around the Garage, "Totally cool place, man, I'd love to bring my skateboard over some day and try that ramp out dude!"

Walter looked at him as he signed the receipt. "Maybe another time then dude," the courier told him as he turned to leave.

Walter looked and found the paychecks for the gang, "Wait, these were supposed to go to the addresses on the envelope." Walter held the envelopes out.

The courier frowned and looked at his book, "Sorry dude, says here to deliver here."

Walter shook his head, "How much to have you deliver them properly then?

"Oh man, the waves are pretty wild today, I planned to go surfing after dropping this off." The courier sighed. He looked at the addresses, "I guess I can get these delivered and still get some good waves, thirty bucks?"

Walter sighed and pulled out his wallet and opened it. All he had was twenties, "I don't suppose you have change?"

The courier just shook his head and smiled as Walter handed him forty bucks.

* * *

Cabe sat at the counter at a local greasy spoon sipping at his coffee. He'd gone back to Allie's and cleaned up and then drove her to work after watching Stevens and Ted paint over the latest message. On his way to Homeland Ted had called and asked to meet up with him and suggested this place.

"Hey Gallo," Ted said harshly.

Cabe turned his head, "Damn, can't a man have a cup of coffee without a five year old bugging him?"

Ted laughed as he sat down next to Cabe; he smiled at the waitress who stepped up as soon as he had, "I'll have the breakfast special." Ted told her.

"Man, your boy is a real piece of work Cabe." Ted said quietly to him.

Cabe frowned, "What do you mean?"

Ted stirred some sugar and cream into his coffee after the waitress brought it over to him. "I went with that woman from the other side of the Garage to get Walter's permission for her to work on those fragments and she found he had his Last Will notarized last night," Cabe nearly spit his coffee out and Ted held up his hand. "He's okay; anyway she kind of freaked out about it so we rushed up to the loft and thankfully only found him sleeping. But instead of being grateful people were concerned about him he just wanted some privacy so he could get up."

Cabe breathed a sigh of relief, "Yea, this whole situation has him twisting in the wind. He was never very big on emotions in the first place but he has gotten even colder since all this started."

* * *

Paige sat on her couch with Sylvester, Happy and Toby had pulled a couple of dining room chairs into the front room since the recliner was 'missing'. Her head in her hands and tears in her eyes, she felt almost violated by the gang trying to convince her to join them with Centipede Partners. "Guys, I really am not up to this yet. I'm dealing with so much right now. Ralph's pain and anger, my own pain and anger, my desires to run over and cry for forgiveness from Wal...Him."

Toby stopped her, "Hey, you haven't done anything to warrant asking him for forgiveness, he caused this. Happy and I tried to get him to come clean for weeks."

"Damn it Toby, I love him. Instead of walking out I should have stayed there and demanded we go to counseling. You know he didn't cheat on me." Paige glared at him.

Toby looked at her, "Really? Why didn't he tell you about it then? Even when you told him you knew he was hiding something to just tell you and you could work through it with him and what did he do?" Toby took a deep breath, "I'm not saying this to upset you or anything and we all know Walter has been at this plateau for quite a while now. You've done amazing work with him these past four years. If we use what has already happened and move forward, start this company, we can effect further change on Walter emotionally. We can get him past where he is to a healthier place. But we got to get him through his fear first. We have to cut all ties; if we're weak we need to tell ourselves what he did and to remind ourselves of what all he has done to drive out thoughts that could cause us to reach out to him, even if you have to make stuff up to make yourself mad."

Paige sat staring at Toby her mouth wide open, "Do you even hear what you are saying? Make stuff up about him to make myself mad at him? Are you kidding me?" Paige stood up and began pacing the floor. "I think you need to get the hell out of here."

"Paige, look, I get it, I don't like what the Doc is suggesting either, Walter's my oldest friend. But I also don't know what else to do to help him. The real damage to Walter is already done according to the Doc, when you dumped him," Paige spun around to stare at Happy with shock on her face, "The rest of us walking out made it worse. We could turn tail, we could go back and apologize and try to reconcile with him. But what if the Doc is right, what if we do this and after just a month or two," Toby interrupted Happy.

"Maybe four months but no more than six for sure," Toby said.

Happy stared at him for a moment as he threw up his hands, "So what if by doing this it has the effect the Doc really thinks it will have? Wouldn't getting a more normal acting Walter be worth the short bit of pain?"

Paige stared at Happy, "Did you listen to what you just said? Acting? Who the hell wants him acting? Why isn't he enough the way he is? I can't believe you are actually on board with this bull poop, Sly are you on board with it too?"

"W-well, Paige, I, I think I am. I don't exactly like it but then I won't mind it if it hurts him a little like he hurt me." Sylvester said and then flinched as she glared at him.

Paige put her hands on the back of her hips and stared up at the ceiling, "God, I must be losing my mind to even consider this. So what exactly is your plan?"

* * *

"Yea, I've already requisitioned three more agents on each watch, I've got security cameras to be installed as well and I'll have a surveillance van recording everything too. We'll get whoever is doing this Cabe, trust me." Ted told him as he cut up his egg.

"Well, well, what do we have here? Agents Gallo and Markus having a nice cozy talk at breakfast?"

Cabe and Ted turned to see Carlson standing a few feet away. "Imagine my surprise when the locators on your cars indicated you were both here. So I thought I just had to come find out what was going on," Carlson just grinned but not in a friendly way.

"Sir, I was just bringing Agent Gallo up to date on what I was doing about the person who attacked Agent Douglas." Ted tried to spin it. "Since the attack happened while he was safeguarding Scorpion HQ."

Carlson stared at him but Ted didn't flinch or blink.

Carlson turned back to Cabe, "I don't like you Gallo and I most certainly don't like Scorpion. Merrick and Molina might have put up with your nonsense and O'Brien's but I am sick of it. I'll be watching you, BOTH of you." Carlson turned and walked out.

* * *

They all jumped at the knock on Paige's door. Paige shook her head and walked over and looked out seeing a younger man standing there with a bicycle. "Can help you?" Paige called out.

"Hey, totally, like I got a registered letter for a Paige Dineen." The courier said.

Paige opened the door as Happy stepped over to her side. "Paige Dineen?" He asked looking at them both. Paige pointed to herself, "Cool." He reached out his book and she signed where he indicated and he handed her the letter.

"That's a paycheck," Happy said. She looked at him, "You got letters for Happy Quinn, Toby Curtis and Sylvester Dodd too?"

"Whoa, you must be one of those psychics on TV. How'd you know?" The courier said with wide eyes.

Happy shook her head, "Because I'm Happy."

The courier frowned, "You sure don't seem like it, are you sure?"

"It's my name, not an emotion Nimrod." Happy glared at him.

"Okay dude, don't blow a gasket. You got ID?" The courier asked.

Toby and Sylvester both walked up with their IDs as he looked at Happy's. "Gnarly, I'll still get to the beach for some of those great waves!"

* * *

Walter walked around the Garage taking stock of everything that was in the building, more accurately and importantly what wasn't there anymore. He lingered at Paige's desk his hand ran along the top of the back of her chair and he pulled it out. He hesitated before he sat down and he slowly opened each drawer but didn't see anything beyond work related items and he closed the last drawer.

* * *

Florence stared at the bag not sure what she should do. Was this really a test, did they already know her role in everything? She finally sighed and opened the bag, figuring she might as well do it to the best of her ability.

* * *

Walter felt tears well up and he slammed his fist into the top of her desk and stood up. He thrust those feelings out of his mind and stormed upstairs to begin gathering everything up that belonged to Paige and as he moved past the makeshift bedroom where Ralph slept those nights they stayed over he saw a piece of paper on his pillow. He walked over and picked it up seeing a B+ written on the back. He turned it over and saw Ralph had drawn a house with a picket fence, a tree and a tire swing, a young boy that looked something like Ralph being pushed by someone who looked like himself and someone who looked like Paige watching and smiling. Walter's anger failed and he collapsed upon the bed and cried.

* * *

Florence looked up suddenly as Walter's cries echoed throughout the Garage and through the shared ventilation vent and into her lab. She slumped down until she was sitting on the concrete floor and cried.

* * *

Cabe had left the diner immediately and he now sat waiting outside of Katharine Cooper's office. Her assistant finally told him he could go in. As Cabe entered and closed her door, "Cabe, I'm so sorry. Carlson has completely shut me out over this. What's going on?" Katharine asked.

Cabe nodded, "Ted Markus is heading up the investigation, he's a good man. He's split up the evidence and has three independent groups, including Florence from Scorpion, examining them as well as Homeland forensics to try and figure out whatever they can from the bomb fragments. He's also going to have multiple agents on each shift, cameras and a surveillance van to watch over Scorpion HQ."

"I'm glad Markus is being so through, I guess I should have taken the promotion when they offered it to me. How's Walter doing?" Katharine asked.

"I haven't spoken with him yet today but last night he was growing colder and more distant when I dropped off dinner for him." Cabe told her. "Is there anything you can think of we can do about Carlson?" He asked.

Katharine shook her head, "I've reached out to some people I trust and for right now, there's nothing they are willing to do about him. At least not without something concrete that he has done wrong."

Cabe nodded, "He basically threatened me in a diner this morning, so you better watch out and don't try to protect me. I don't want you to get sacked. If I get fired you might be the last chance for Walter's protection."

"You know, four years ago, I might have backed down, but meeting you and Scorpion and working with you I don't take things the same way anymore. If we're going out, I plan to go out with as big of a bang as I can." Katharine smiled at him.

Cabe smiled remembering back when she took on Olivia Cromwell.

* * *

Tears welled up in Paige's eyes again as she closed the door looking at the check. "I can't believe he went ahead and paid us."

Toby grabbed her shoulders, "Don't you see what this is? This is pure manipulation to try and get us to come back. Think about it, Walter would never do something like this. He'd have cut us loose without a rope for doing what we did."

Paige shook her head, "Was it manipulation when he gave me a year's salary and set me up at Elia's company at almost double my salary when he fired me?"

"Paige that was a totally different situation, he felt guilty about firing you. He was justifying his actions in his own mind by making things better for you and Ralph financially. This is pure manipulation to make us think he's changed." Toby told her.

Sylvester looked over at him, "Does that mean you aren't going to cash it then?"

"Are you kidding? I'm going to cash it and laugh at the same time." Toby told him.

Toby looked at Paige again, "Remember, keep telling yourself everything he's done wrong, make up stuff if you have to. Maintain a detachment over it."

Paige stared blankly at him; Toby smiled and snapped his fingers, "Paige?"

Paige shook her head, "I don't know guys. This all seems so wrong. We're supposed to be his friends, his family." Paige squeezed her hands over and over.

"This plan is really no different then when you threw him into the water for sink or swim and look how that turned out. I'm confident that this will work and Walter will grow and become better." Toby told her.

Paige stared at him, "I swear Toby, this better work fast because I don't know how long I could possible do this. And I can't just make things up to be mad at him about."

Toby smiled, "Don't worry; we'll help you if you need it."

* * *

Florence couldn't take Walter's pain any longer and got up and ran out of her lab and slammed the door shut behind her and continued to cry against the door.


	9. Chapter 9

Cabe stopped at the intersection in front of Scorpion HQ and as he started to pull over into his parking spot he saw Florence standing outside her door, her back against the door crying. With concern on his face he parked his SUV and got out. Walking down the sidewalk he could hear her cries, "Florence? What's wrong kid?"

Florence looked up in horror and seeing Cabe melted into his arms crying and shaking, "Walter's grief, I can't take it Cabe, it's coming through the ventilation system, it's tearing me apart," Florence sobbed.

Cabe nodded as he held her for several minutes. She finally began to regain control over her emotions. Cabe looked down at her, "Better kid?"

Florence nodded, "I had just started to examine the evidence when he began crying, his grief was so heartbreaking, I had to run out here."

"Give me ten minutes, I'll go rouse him and you can get back to work." Cabe kissed her forehead.

To protect Walter's dignity Cabe banged on the door before opening it. As Cabe stepped in he yelled, "You here Walt?" Cabe walked on over to the kitchen since he didn't hear him crying. He added water to the coffee pot and as he added a coffee filter to the coffee maker he heard steps on the stairs. "Morning Walt," Cabe called out.

Walter grunted as he stepped over to his desk and picked up an envelope and walked into the kitchen and handed to Cabe.

Cabe looked at the envelope, "Kid, I told you, you don't have to pay me anything." He held the envelope back out to Walter but he just stepped away.

"I don't want you to ever think I don't appreciate your contributions to the team. Especially now," Walter said as he walked back over to his desk.

Cabe followed him, "You don't think I know that? Or you think some amount of monetary compensation is going to tell me more than what I see in your eyes?" Cabe laid the envelope on the desk, "Put it back in the bank or give it to charity or whatever you want to do with it."

"Well then, that makes you the only one that was on Scorpion that can see the truth." Walter said quietly.

Cabe turned to look at Walter, "I know this is hurting you son."

"It's not hurting me Cabe, it's killing me!" Walter all but yelled, interrupting him. "Everything I've done to help the guys and look what it's gotten me. The first and only woman I've ever truly loved, my brother, my best friend, her husband all abandoned me. The son I wish I had either refuses to talk to me or his Mom is stopping him from doing so. God how could this have gone so wrong? Just like when I was a kid, no matter how hard I try it's never enough."

"People either get frustrated dealing with me and walk away or they get all they think they can. With the exception of you, why am I so unlovable Cabe? Did Paige not really love me even though she always told me she did? How do you walk away from someone you love like that? Am I truly that messed up of a person? What is so wrong with me that I'm not worth anymore of an effort? Am I really that taxing to people who are fully developed emotionally? Can't people just be honest and tell me that something I do bothers them? Then I could at least choose if I want to modify that or not. I know I screwed up with Paige but she didn't even want to try and see if we could fix it. Sly at least gave me some reason why he was upset but what was Happy and Toby's beef? What did I ever do that was so wrong? Is this some kind of punishment for being married to Happy? We've been together for more than ten years." Tears ran down his cheeks as he unleashed all the things that had been building up in him for the last few nights.

"I feel just like I did when I was that scared eleven year old boy, picked on and bullied by the other kids and simple minded teachers because of how smart I was, mocked and made fun of by my own family when I would try to build things that they couldn't begin to comprehend or predict things and they'd happen but would happen some place else. I feel so unloved, a burden to others and completely alone, forced to stay more than an arms length away from everyone else when all I've ever wanted to do was hug someone and connect. And now, I don't even have Megan to help make it better, to keep me grounded, to intercede, to help people to understand me or to help me understand them. Something I thought I'd found in Paige to pick up the load I couldn't carry, compliment my skills so I could compliment hers." Tears just ran down Walter's face, "God, I almost wish I had never met Paige, for sure I wish I never tried to improve emotionally for her, I should have just let her do her job and just remained a robot. But every time I look at her, everything about her, her smile, her voice, her loving personality, her compassion, her intelligence and her sense of humor, just everything called to every fiber in my being. Love never made sense to me until I saw her smile and it scared me so completely. I loved my sister, I love my parents, I love you and I love Ralph, but this," Walter slammed his fist against his chest over and over and over, "I've never felt this before, it's pushed me over and over to try things I never would have ever even considered before I met Paige. My stomach is in so many knots, I can't eat, I can't even think of food. I don't want to leave this building and yet I can't stand to be in it because of all the memories tied to Paige and Ralph, I want to rush over to Paige's and throw myself on the ground and crawl to her, begging her to forgive my stupidity and to give me another chance. The others don't want me, I can live with that. But how do I live without the ones I desperately need in my life? God, if they had just died it would be easier to take. I could go back to being a robot, but how do I go on knowing they are alive and well, just beyond that wall, but that wall might as well be Mars?"

Cabe walked up behind Walter and bending over he wrapped his arms around his shoulders and hugged him tightly, "Son, I'm no good with these kind of emotional things either. I'm of a breed of man brought up that men were men; they didn't give into so called weak emotions. But you are absolutely lovable, if you weren't I definitely couldn't love you like the son I never had. You are completely worth any effort to be around. I don't know what Happy and Toby's problem is, and Sly might have had a reason but it was a stupid reason and Paige, Paige is hurting son, she's got a lot of problems because of her Mom and she saw what you did as some kind of manipulation like what her Mom would pull. You've got to give her some time and whatever you do, don't ever approach her logically, that won't work with her. You've got to be honest but honest through compassion and especially be honest emotionally. It's the only way it will ever work with her."

* * *

"I don't care, keep your damn proxy votes. I'm not going to do anything that hurts Walter anymore. My company means a lot to me but I won't do anything else to hurt anyone just to get it back." Florence told Collins.

"You think you're refusal to stop helping will mean peace for Walter? I'll just get someone else to do it." Collins told her.

"Fine, but it won't be me. I'm done." Florence hung up the phone and then broke it.

Collins smiled, "I guess it's time for phase four."

* * *

The gang spent the rest of the morning and afternoon going over all the documents so they could file their paperwork to get their new business incorporated. "We can start right away and just wait for our corporation to be approved, but I think we better have insurance to cover any issues before we're incorporated. Sly has run the numbers, if we each contribute ten thousand dollars, we'll have enough to lease office space and get insurance and utilities. That would cover everything for the first six months, according to Sly. We could probably contact the Governor and remind him who we are and how we helped him, he might be able to push the corporation paperwork through a bit faster too." Toby told them.

Ralph walked into their home just then and saw Happy, Toby and Sylvester sitting in the front room talking with his Mom. His Mom clearly upset and he saw the tears on her face as she looked up and turned to see him. She quickly got up and moved over and hugged him fiercely. "Mom, what's going on? Why are you crying?" Ralph glared over at the trio.

"The guys want me to join them in starting our own problem solving company. What do you think sweetie?" Paige asked as she continued to kneel down in front of him.

Ralph couldn't believe what he had just heard as he looked from his Mom to the gang. "Betraying Dad wasn't enough? Now you want to start the same type of company? To what end?"

"Hey Ralph, we didn't betray him. Most of us were tired of his way of conducting business. We want more of a say in how things work. And truth is, without Walter more companies are going to be more open to work with us. It'll mean more work and better money without the worry if Walter will tick someone off and get us fired. And less stress on your Mom from trying to constantly smooth the feathers Walter will ruffle." Toby told him.

Ralph looked back at his Mom, "You can't do this. It was Dad's skills and intellect people wanted on jobs, with you by his side to help him in dealing with normals. If you do this, what will happen to Dad?"

"Hey, this is a good thing for your Mom and you as well. More money means better everything." Toby told him.

Ralph glared at him, "Baby, it's just not that simple. Toby believes this will actually help Wal…Him. He said he believes it will help him past the pain in his childhood and he'll be able to connect better to his emotions and then we can come back together again."

Ralph got mad; and he glared hard at Toby "What a load of bull. You accused Dad of listening to clap trap from reading women's magazines for advice on how to be a better friend, their advice had more basis in facts than what you are trying to shovel past my Mom. How can you two be okay with this?" He demanded while pointing towards Happy and Sylvester.

"Hey Ralph, who's the Harvard trained Doctor here?" Toby asked.

"Oh sure, bring up that tired and worthless excuse as if somehow it negates facts. What did you ever do to help Dad with being a better person? All I have seen you do is put down what he tried to do, belittle him for his shortcomings and make inappropriate jokes and stupid puns." Ralph continued to stare at him.

"Ralph!" Paige exclaimed. "I think you need to go to your room and get your homework done."

Ralph stomped off to his room and slammed the door. Paige looked up at Toby, "I swear to God Toby, if you are wrong or are playing some kind of game with me to screw with Walter, Happy is going to be a widow."

"Well I think we should get going, Happy and I will drop these into the mailbox after we drop Sly off at his place." Toby beat a hasty retreat past Paige to the front door and waited on Happy and Sylvester to join him.

Paige sighed as she stepped over to Ralph's door and knocked, "Come in." Ralph said.

Paige opened the door and walked in, "The guys just left. Ralph, I want you to know I am not discounting what you said or your gift. It's just I have to believe that with Toby knowing Walter so much longer than us and being a doctor he might have a better understanding."

Ralph looked up at her, "I get it Mom, but I don't know how he can peddle what he is saying. I'd believe a stranger selling snake oil over what was said out there."

"I get it baby and I promise if we don't see positive results soon we'll do something else. Do you want the chicken noodle soup Jill brought over?

Ralph frowned and shrugged.

* * *

After dropping Sly off at his place and dropping the paperwork into the mailbox Happy and Toby arrived at home, "Hey, what do you think; pizza tonight?" Toby asked.

Happy shrugged, "I guess." She sat down at her bench with the knucklehead motor on it.

Toby pulled out his phone and called their favorite place, "Wait, forty five minutes for delivery? Okay, I'll come pick it up then." Toby looked at his wife, "I'm going to go pick it up, they got a forty five minute delivery time tonight."

Happy looked back at him and nodded.

* * *

Toby pulled up along the side their favorite pizza joint and as he got out of the truck a guy bumped into him. Toby looked after him, "Really, watch where you're going." Toby yelled and then stared as the man walked back over and Toby's eyes opened wide.

"Oh Tobias, tick tock." Collins said. Toby collapsed fast asleep. Collins pulled out a scalpel and quickly cut him along the back side of his neck and pulled out a slim disc and slipped it under the muscle tissue and pressed a cloth against the incision. "Help, someone, help!" He hollered as a customer came out of the pizza shop.

She came over, "What happened?"

"A bicyclist clipped this guy, looks like he cut his neck pretty good." Collins told her.

"Oh my gosh," she ran back to the shop and yelled for help.

Happy's phone rang, "Happy Quinn." Happy's eyes shot open as she told them she was on her way. She went to grab her keys and then remembered that Toby took the truck. She swore as she picked up her phone she called Paige. It didn't take Paige long to pick her up and get her to the pizza shop. Toby was fighting with the ambulance driver not wanting to go to the hospital when they got there. Happy went running up, "Doc!"

"I'm fine Happy, just got a little cut." Toby told her.

"You also lost consciousness sir." The medic told him.

"Hey, I'm a Harvard trained Doctor." Toby told him.

Happy looked at the back of his neck, "Doc that looks pretty bad to me," she told him.

Toby brushed off her concerns and signed the wavier relieving the medics of responsibility for him declining medical help.


	10. Chapter 10

**I forgot to say, there is finally some happiness in this story! Might not be the happiness we want but, it's happiness none the less. To the adventure! -Tim**

* * *

Cabe was packing the dinner Allie was making into bags so they could go eat with Walter. "I tell you Allie, I thought maybe things would be getting better by now, but after everything Walter brought up today at the Garage I don't think he is ever going to get better. The pain is so much deeper than I ever thought it would be. I know I am as guilty as the next person in dismissing Walter having emotions but what came out today. Lord help me, how wrong I was. I told him I knew it was hurting him and he basically yelled saying it wasn't hurting him, it was killing him. And after all he said, I believe him, I have no clue how he is going to survive if she doesn't come back to him soon."

Allie looked at Cabe thinking, "Well, we got more than enough, why don't we run by Paige's and see if she would agree to go have dinner with all of us? We could bring Ralph back with us if she wants to talk with Walter."

Cabe looked up with a smile, "You think she would?"

"I don't know Cabe, I don't know everything about the situation, but from what you said about Walter, we got to try." Allie told him as she walked over and placed the last dish in the box he'd placed the bags in.

Cabe reached out and hugged her to him, "I am so blessed to have you in my life Ms Jones. After talking to Walter all day I have a request."

Allie smiled, "Which is?"

Cabe looked down, "I told Walter, I'm not much better at these emotion things than he is, so if I ever make a mistake, do me a favor, help me learn and don't just leave me like she left him."

Allie looked up into his eyes, "You're much better at them then you think you are, but I promise, I won't just leave you like she left him." She smiled as a smile crossed his lips.

* * *

Cabe parked outside of Paige and Ralph's place and he turned off his SUV and they sat there as he stared up at the living room window. Allie looked over at him after a few minutes, "Cabe?"

Cabe nearly jumped as he looked at her and she saw him try to smile and he nodded as he squeezed the door handle and pushed it open. Ralph was playing the racing game on his game system when he heard a knock on the door. Pausing his game he got up and walked to the door and looking out he saw Cabe and a smile erupted on his face. Throwing the door open he shouted, "Grandpa!" He jumped into Cabe's arms.

Cabe smiled as he hugged Ralph tightly against him. "Hey kid, how you doing?"

"A little better now that you are here." Ralph told him still smiling.

"Ralph? Did you say something?" Paige walked out of the hallway. Seeing Cabe she ran over and hugged him tightly. "Thank you for coming by," she gestured and he stepped in as she closed the door. "After having the guys over here all day battering me to start this stupid company with them, I needed to see a friendly face."

"It's good seeing you both, I can't stay long unfortunately." Cabe told them as he stood there nervously.

"Oh," Paige said clearly disappointed.

"Allie is waiting in the SUV; we're on our way over to have dinner with Walter. We-We wanted to invite you and Ralph to come with us. After we eat we could take Ralph with us, give you and Walter a chance to talk." Cabe barely got it out.

Paige turned away, "Mom, please? We don't have to eat, we could just sit and talk with them and then you and Dad can talk this all out and forget about Centipede Partners." Ralph told her grabbing her hand.

Paige shook her head, "As much as I would love to do that, we can't. Toby says if we want to see Wal…him grow emotionally we need to cut all contact. It will force his emotions to reset and he'll be better." Paige squeezed her hands over and over.

"Kid, Walter's," he looked at Ralph, "Walter needs you both." He altered what he was about to say, "To hell with what the Doc says, he's wrong this time." Cabe said with serious heat in his voice. "It's clear to me that this separation is hurting you almost as much as it is Walter. You both need him and he needs you both."

Tears ran down her cheeks, "Cabe, I got to put faith in something, Toby's known him longer, he's a trained doctor, shouldn't he know what will work?"

Cabe shook his head, "I don't know what the Doc is thinking but I'm here to tell you, Walter needs you and I mean like I need air to breath, he NEEDS you."

"It's not that I don't believe you Cabe and I really want to, but I just don't know if I can believe that Wal," she closed her eyes and paused, "Walter could ever really feel that way, not without some kind of miracle. Toby says this will give us this miracle. I got to trust this."

Ralph pulled at her hand, "Mom, please trust what Cabe is telling us. The miracle you want could already have happened. Dad needs us, please."

"Baby, I want to, Lord knows I want to believe that more than anything. But what if Toby is right? What if going over there undoes all that Wal…he's gone through so far and it ruins this moment for transformation? Would you be happy about that?" Paige looked from Ralph to Cabe, "I know this isn't what either of you want to hear, but for now I am trusting Toby's knowledge." Tears continued to run down her face.

"What about Ralph? Can I take him over to eat with us?" Cabe pleaded. Ralph looked up at his Mom with eagerness.

Paige shook her head, "Toby says he has to be completely cut off from the five of us for this to work."

Cabe shook his head, "Kid, I know you are hurting because that situation reminded you of the manipulations of your Mom, so I'm going to forgive this if that's your decision and I'll go, but I'm telling you the Doc is dead wrong and something else is going on for him to want to keep you both from Walter."

Ralph cried as he hugged onto Cabe before he left. As Paige closed and locked the door Ralph yelled at his Mom, "Ask yourself this, if it's so important for Dad to be abandoned than why is it only the five of us? Why is it okay for Grandpa to keep having contact with him?" He turned and ran into his bedroom slamming the door.

* * *

Allie looked out with concern seeing only Cabe walking back and no sign that Paige and Ralph were coming. As Cabe opened his door and got in, "Sweetie? What happened?"

Cabe slammed the door shut, "Toby happened, I should have known it." Cabe slammed his hands into the steering wheel in frustration. "He's driven a wedge into Paige giving her some malarkey that if the five of them cut off all contact with Walter it will somehow 'reset' his emotions and he'll be a better person."

Allie frowned, "I'm so sorry Cabe, let's go on over and eat with Walter. We can try approaching Paige another time." She caressed his arm as he started the SUV and took off.

* * *

"There really isn't a lot I could figure out from this device agent Markus; the outside of it appears to have been coated in acetone, my guess to have the effect of causing it to burn to help destroy evidence. The residual inside the pieces shows a type of plastic explosive but not a commercial grade. This was homemade." Florence told him as she walked over to the white board she had, "This is the formula they used to make the explosive."

Ted wrote all that down and then took a picture of her white board, "Damn, you're good girl. I know who to come to in the future. None of the other labs have gotten back to me yet. And please, call me Ted."

Florence smiled.

"Hey, I noticed this restaurant on the way over here called Kovelsky's, is it any good?" Ted asked her.

Florence nodded, "They have a lot of specialty dishes, not your normal fare for LA."

Ted put his phone into his pocket and flipped his notebook closed. "I haven't had dinner yet, would you like to grab a bite with me?" Ted looked up at her after asking.

Florence was shocked but recovered fairly quickly, "Uh, wow, no one has asked me out in a while."

Ted smiled, "Is that a yes?"

Florence finally nodded, "Let me change my lab clothes."

* * *

Cabe had to show his badge to get past the perimeter marked off by Homeland and they saw the different security measures Markus had put in place. As Cabe and Allie pulled up in front of Scorpion HQ they saw Ted walk out of Florence's and then she walked out. Cabe let out a low whistle, "Looks like Ted asked Florence out." He smiled as Ted held the car door for Florence to get in. As they got out of the SUV they saw Ted drive off in the opposite direction.

The Garage was dark again and quiet as they stepped inside. Cabe reached over and flicked a couple of switches and the lights over the desks came on as well as the ones back in the kitchen. They saw Walter just sitting at his desk staring off into space. "Hey Walt, we've brought over dinner." Cabe called out to him.

Walter's head turned slightly as he watched them move in and back into the kitchen, "I'm not hungry."

Cabe sat the box with the bags of food onto the table and turned and looked back at Walter. He stepped over to the fridge and opened it and saw the dinner he had brought to him last night still in there.

Allie saw his face darken and she touched his arm and whispered, "Set the table and let me try talking to him." Cabe looked at Walter for a moment and then Allie and he slowly nodded.

Allie walked over and sat down at the chair beside Walter's desk, "Walter, I know you and I don't know each other very well yet, but would you agree with both know Cabe pretty well?"

Walter slowly nodded his head.

Allie let out a breath, "I know how much this situation is affecting you and I can also see how much it is affecting Cabe. But what is affecting him even more is seeing you like this, your not eating is hurting him. He loves you and he is worried something bad is going to happen to you if you don't start eating and taking care of yourself. I was dumped a year before I met Cabe, it devastated me, I thought he was the one, I'd put so much on hold for him only to have him leave me for someone else. It was hard recovering from that, I didn't want to eat, I didn't want to work, I spent weeks hold up in my place, if it hadn't been for friends coming over and forcing me to do what I couldn't bring myself to do on my own, I probably wouldn't be here today. I certainly wouldn't have been in a place where I could take a chance with Cabe. Now, I'm not saying you are going to meet someone else. Cabe and I believe in you and Paige but if you don't take care of yourself, then when all this gets resolved you might not be here. Is that what you want?"

She watched as a tear ran down his cheek and he slowly shook his head. "You don't have to eat a lot, but please join us, make a plate and at least try. If not for you or a future with Paige, for Ralph and for Cabe, if something happens to you I am convinced Cabe won't survive it."

Walter looked at her for a minute and slowly nodded his head.

Cabe kissed Allie's cheek as she came back to the kitchen followed by Walter.

* * *

Ted held Florence's chair as she sat down and then took his seat. He thanked the hostess as he took his menu from her and opened it. "So Florence, what do you recommend?"

Florence smiled, "Well, Walter loves the fermented fish, but I don't recommend it, Cabe and Toby really love the hamburgers. They have a great fish dinner with swai."

Ted looked at her, "Swai? I don't think I have ever heard of it."

"It's a type of catfish, from Vietnam. It has a better flavor than regular catfish."

Ted nodded, "I like fish, I think I will have to try it then. Thank you for recommending it."

Florence just smiled feeling better than she had for the last several months.

Ted took her back over to the Garage after they had eaten and she saw the whole block around the Garage had been blocked off, special light units lighting up the street, several additional cars with agents, one at each corner of the building he told her. He pointed out the surveillance van and the security cameras they'd installed. Ted showed his badge and was passed through the check point and he saw Cabe's SUV outside of the Garage. He got out of his car and walked around and opened the door for Florence and took her hand as she turned and stood up out of the car. "I really had a good time tonight Florence; I hope you did as well."

Florence smiled, "It's been the best night for several months and certainly the best date. Thank you."

Ted smiled, "I hope you'll agree to go out with me again."

Florence kissed his cheek with a smile, "I would be agreeable to that. Ted smiled and took her keys and then opened her door for her and handed them back to her.

* * *

Just after midnight a powder blue van turned onto Happy and Toby's street and the headlights went out as it pulled up in front of their house and slowed to a stop on the other side of their driveway. The driver turned it off and then climbed into the back and pulled a curtain shut. He flipped a switch and a monitor lit up showing vital rhythms, "Oh Tobias, the fun is just beginning old friend. You fell completely in my trap. I still can't believe you succumbed to my hypnotic manipulations when I first told you that Happy wouldn't accept your marriage proposal."

Collins flipped another switch and a red light lit up as a green light began to flicker and then turned to a solid blue and he just smiled. "Maneuvering Florence into position to spy and sabotage Scorpion for me, once I had perfected this tech," Collins flipped another switch and began typing into a computer and watched as data passed back and forth through the wireless connection.

"Once Scorpion broke up I just had to call you and activate your code word, so full of yourself, you had no clue that you were my weapon of choice. You didn't even realize you used your hypnotic training to weaken the will of the others so they would at least follow that stupid scenario I gave you. But sadly even your will is too strong for what has to come next. Hence my little project here. I know Ralph doesn't trust you; he won't buy into this so you won't be able to weaken his will as you have the others. So we'll just have to control his Mother and she will keep him in check." Collins watched as the computer quit transmitting data back and forth to the device he'd placed into Toby's neck.

He watched as the computer began receiving data again and he saw the number of neuro-connections start increasing. Collins was confident in the system working correctly he set his watch to wake him in five hours and he kicked back and fell asleep.

Collins woke up as his alarm began buzzing, he got up in his chair and looked at the screen, "Perfect, just three more nights Tobias and all the connections will be completed and then, then I move in for your king."


	11. Chapter 11

Dinner had been painful, Walter knew they had acted that way for his benefit but he had wished he'd just told them to go ahead and act normally. Ordinarily he wouldn't have seen the three hundred and twenty eight times they started to do something even slightly affectionate towards the other but then caught themselves and stopped. He wasn't sure why he saw it last night but it seemed to bother him more that they felt like they couldn't do that in front of him than if they had just done it. While part of him was thankful they'd come over and forced him to eat, he'd just rather they'd mind their own business and leave him to deal with things. He'd put Ralph's drawing up next to his bed, as much as it hurt, it brought him some comfort as well. He turned to the nightstand on the other side of the bed and he picked up each item Paige had left on it and placed them in the box he brought up. As soon as the last piece was in the box he picked each one up and put it back exactly where she had left it. He sighed and turned to the closet and opened it and seeing the small cache of clothes she had there. He pulled each one out and memories of each time she wore it popped up and he smiled and put it back into the closet. He sighed realizing regardless to how much it was hurting he knew he just couldn't pack any of it up.

He walked over and sat on the edge of his bed and pulled out his phone and looked at his contacts, looking at Arrhythmia he pressed dial and he heard it ring once, then twice and then it clicked and went to voice mail.

* * *

Paige had just pulled back into her parking spot when her phone rang and she saw it was Walter. Her heart leaped and she had almost hit answer but then she told herself a lie 'Walter did this on purpose' and she clicked decline. She watched as she did that and couldn't believe she had just done it.

* * *

His heart cracked knowing she'd declined his call, "This is Paige Dineen, please leave a detailed message after the beep." *beep*

"Hey Paige, its Walter, I-I just wanted to make sure that you and Ralph are okay. If there is anything at all I can do for you, no matter how big or small, please let me know. I know I hurt you and I honestly didn't mean to and I am so sorry. I was so scared that the truth would drive you away and of course by not telling you, the truth did drive you away. You and Ralph mean so much to me, I know you don't want anything to do with me now but I really do care and if you need a recommendation for a new job I'll be sure to give you a good one. You are without a doubt the best at what I hired you to do. And then you grew perfectly into your role as business manager. It has been my absolute joy to see you not only blossom working here but to thrive and everything that Scorpion ever accomplished wasn't because of my intellect, or Sly's mathematical ability or Happy's mechanical gift or even Toby's training as a Dr but because of you. We had all these things before you and we failed time and again. It wasn't until you agreed to come here that everything turned around. But all of that pales to how you loved me and showed me how to love even if I am not on your level and I am so sorry I failed you in that regard. I owe you so much. If you're sure you don't want to come back to work with me and you'd like, I can call Richard Elia, I know he would love to have you back. Well anyway, call anytime of the day or night even if it's just to yell at me. As much as I would love to see you, to hold you, I-I'd really love to just hear your voice." Tears ran down his face as he hung up.

He scanned on down his contacts and saw Sylvester's name and so he pressed dial and the same thing happened.

* * *

Sylvester was at the Warlock's chest picking up the latest comics when he saw Walter calling. He stared at it saying over and over, 'He made her fall in love with him' and finally clicked decline. "This is Sylvester Dodd, alderman of West Altadenia. Please leave a detailed message." *beep*

* * *

Walter sighed, "Hey Sylvester, its Walter. I just wanted to take a moment to tell you how sorry I am that things happened the way they did. I was wrong for lashing out at you the way I did. I'm not sure why I did, I know I didn't believe anything I said after you got mad at me about what Florence said. I honestly had no clue she felt that way and I never set out for such a thing to happen and I didn't know it had. I only love Paige, she's my everything and I honestly don't know how that got lost in the translation. Anyway, my brother, I'd love the chance to talk with you if you think you could ever give me the chance." Walter hung up and then walked down to his desk where he just sat, staring out the window towards the sky.

* * *

Florence woke up feeling so much better than she had in the last year. While at first Collins's tasks were benign it was still a relief to know she had finally put an end to it. She still was worried about Walter finding out about what she had done and possibly being arrested. Ted Markus had really turned her head last night and while hopeful for the future and possibly moving forward with him she worried about how the truth would mess that up. She just had to make sure no one ever found out the truth.

* * *

Cabe was dropping Allie off at work, "I've been thinking about it and dinner seemed a bit strained last night. What do you think?"

Allie smiled, "I think that's because we were both trying not to show affection in front of Walter."

Cabe nodded, "Yea, you're probably right. You want me to pick you up for lunch?"

Allie hugged him, "Not today, I'm going to have to work through it to be ready for our presentation tomorrow. See you at 5:30 PM?"

Cabe nodded and then kissed her.

He watched with a smile as she walked over and entered the building, 'I sure hate to see you leave, but I do love watching you go.' He turned and got in his SUV and drove over to Scorpion HQ. Since it was daylight the surveillance van was gone and there was only one agent on duty outside. Cabe flashed his badge, "Quiet night?"

The agent nodded as he stepped aside for him to drive on up.

Even though he knew his car was out front Cabe still called out as he entered the Garage, "Walt, you here son?" Mainly as a way of warning Walter he was there in case his emotions were getting the best of him again. He saw Walter sitting at his desk again staring out the windows into the sky. He stopped at Paige's desk and watched Walter for a moment. "Hey kid, we going to that job bid today?"

Walter shrugged, "They won't hire me without Paige so I don't think so."

"You can't be sure about that son," Cabe told him.

Walter laughed without mirth, "Oh yea? We lost three clients that were already clients when Paige left, and we lost two bids without even really bidding because Paige isn't here. How's that math work for you?"

"Well, we just got to show them that Scorpion can still get the job done." Cabe told him as he walked into the kitchen and started to pour a cup of coffee when he noticed the light was out. He reached out and touched the pot with the back of his hand and found it stone cold. "Is this left from last night?"

Walter shrugged, "I tried and called Paige, she declined my call, I left her a message, I did what you said, I didn't use logic, I spoke honestly and emotionally."

Cabe smiled, "Well if anything can get through to her that will." He dumped the coffee and cleaned out the filter before fixing a new batch of coffee.

"I called and left a message for Sly too, he refused my call as well," Walter told him.

Cabe walked out of the kitchen, "Give them a little time son. I know these emotions are new to you but sometimes it can take us a while to work through it."

* * *

Florence walked through the door, a smile still on her face and she saw Cabe turn and smile at her and she blushed as if he knew what happened last night. "Morning Florence, have a good night last night?"

Florence nodded and started to tell them about it when she saw how miserable Walter looked as he sat looking out the window. "I-I can tell you about it later."

"You're free to talk about it now and speaking of which Cabe. Last night I would have rather you and Allie had gone ahead and been affectionate with each other rather than seeing you start to and then stop because you didn't think I wanted to see it." Walter told them without looking over.

"You saw that?" Cabe asked surprised.

"Three hundred and twenty eight times," Walter told him.

Cabe just stared in disbelief.

"Well, if you are sure. Ted, agent Markus that is, asked me out. He took me to Kovelsky's and we had a really nice dinner." Florence told them her smile returning to her cheeks.

Cabe grinned, "Well that's some welcome news."

The Garage phone rang and Walter moved finally and picked up his desk phone, "Scorpion 2.0, Walter O'Brien speaking." Walter began writing down some information, "Of course, that is certainly a job we'd only be too happy to assist you with." Walter looked at his watch, "We'll see you there in an hour then. Thank you."

"You got a gig?" Cabe asked hopefully.

* * *

Paige sat on the couch crying after listening to Walter's message. He'd sounded so different, in pain obviously but emotionally honest in a way she never heard from him before. She started to call him back when she heard Toby's voice, 'Manipulation.' "Damn you Toby," she screamed.

* * *

"I'm telling you guys he was being completely honest and sincere, I want to go over and see him." Paige said to Happy and Toby.

"This just proves my theory Paige, it's starting to have the desired effect but if you go back too soon it's going to ruin it. We got to see this through." Toby told her over the phone.

Paige hung up the phone and began crying.

Happy looked at Toby, "Are you sure Doc? That message sounded nothing like Walter. Maybe we should listen to Paige and let her go."

Toby shook his head, "It's too early. If she goes over there now everything will be undone."

* * *

"Mr. Baxton, I'm Walter O'Brien and we are Scorpion 2.0, thank you for this opportunity to discuss your company's need with you and offer our services." Walter told him as he shook his hand.

Mr. Baxton took off his glasses, "Of course, it's good to meet you Mr. O'Brien and Scorpion has quite the reputation. Is this lovely young lady Ms Dineen?"

Walter looked puzzled, "No sir, this is Florence Tipton, she is our chemist. For jobs that require such skills. Ms. Dineen no longer works for us."

Mr. Baxton sat his glasses down and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Ah, I hadn't heard that yet."

Cabe closed his eyes and said a little prayer.

"Yes, but rest assured my team is completely professional and we'll be able to solve your problem quickly with little fuss." Walter told him as his stomach knotted up.

Mr. Braxton shook his head, "I'm really sorry Mr. O'Brien, had I known that Ms. Dineen was no longer your employee, I never would have had my assistant reach out to you. To be perfectly honest, your skills are top notch, exactly what I want but your propensity to rub people the wrong way is just too much of a liability for me. I'm sorry to have wasted your time."

Walter stared at the man for several moments, "I'm sorry you feel that way Mr. Braxton. I bid you a good day." Walter stood and quickly left the office shocking Cabe and Florence by remaining calm. He pushed the button for the elevator and Florence and Cabe stepped up behind him. Walter began to grow restless and seeing the door to the stairs he pushed past Cabe and went through the door and began moving quickly down the stairs.

Cabe and Florence exited the building and saw Walter standing by the SUV. As Cabe walked up he put his hand on his shoulder, "Son, I am so proud of how you handled that back there."

"Thanks, that plus five bucks and we can get a coffee. If we-I can't convince them I can do their job without upsetting people it's going to be the end of Scorpion." Walter told him.

Cabe dropped Walter and Florence off at Scorpion HQ and left telling them he was going to Homeland. Florence went to her lab while Walter entered the Garage and looking at the broken pieces of the coffee table walked over and began cleaning them up. After throwing the debris into the dumpster out back, he sat down at his desk.

* * *

Cabe pulled up outside of Paige's place and parked. He took a deep breath after turning the SUV off and opened the door. Paige sat up when she heard a knocked on the door. She got up and wiped her eyes as she walked over to the door. Looking out she saw Cabe and a smile crept up on her face and she quickly opened the door. "Cabe," she greeted him with a hug. She stepped back in and waited for him to enter and then closed the door.

"I need to ask a favor," Cabe told her.

Paige smiled, "Of course, what can I do for you?"

Cabe cleared his throat, "If you won't go see Walter, I need you to let Ralph visit him."

Paige stood there for a moment while she processed what he'd asked. She shook her head sadly, "I can't Cabe, Toby said,"

"To hell with what Toby said. Paige, he loves you both so much more then you know. I didn't want to say this in front of Ralph last night but he's dying over there. He's struggling to understand what is so wrong with him. He needs a lifeline, I'm not enough, HE. NEEDS. YOU." Cabe pleaded with her.

Paige closed her eyes and thought, 'Walter lied to me, he did this on purpose to hurt me.' Cabe watched as a tear ran down her face. And she shook her head no, "I can't, I got to believe in what Toby said."

"Kid, Toby hasn't been over there. He hasn't talked with Walter. I'm telling you, he doesn't have all the facts, even if this cockamamie theory of his was true." Cabe continued to plead.

Paige shook her head no. Cabe stared at her in disbelief, "How about this, how about at least letting Walter and Ralph talk on the phone?"

"Cabe, I can't. I want Walter back so much but I want him healthy, Toby says this is the way and it won't take but a few months." Paige began squeezing her hands.

Cabe stared at her in disbelief, "A few months? Are you kidding me? What about at least letting them communicate over the computer? Please? I'm telling you, I've been over there every day and he needs you but at least communicating with Ralph might be enough." Cabe implored.

Paige looked at Cabe and closed her eyes, "If I do that, please, you can't tell Toby."

Cabe sighed in relief; he reached up and kissed her forehead, "Kid, if I see Toby the only thing I am going to tell him is with my foot."

Paige nodded as a tear ran down her cheek, "Thank you kid, thank you so much." Cabe told her.


	12. Chapter 12

**Greetings, if you haven't read some of the things I post on twitter, when I write, the story 'tells' me what to write and when I stray from what it says I end up having issues writing it. After I had written chapter 7 I had a heck of a time writing chapter 8, constantly rewriting and moving things around but nothing was working. Luckily chapter 7 hadn't been posted yet just uploaded. I went back and reread it and the story 'told' me where I had screwed up. I fixed it and once I did chapter 8 finally told me what was wrong and I corrected it and I was able to keep writing. I tell you this because for the last few days the story has been telling me something about this story as a whole. My original thought was this story was the prequel for Graduation and up to chapter 13 which is already done it is. But at some point this story should diverge from the story that gives birth to Graduation. When I get to that point I have to make a choice, end this story there so it stays true to Graduation or rename it and continue the story as it wants to be written. Of course if I do that, I'll have to give it it's own AU number. So I wanted to give you the chance to let me know if you want me to end it 'early' or continue it as it wants to be written. My feeling is the story will stay the same as Graduation's story line until Scorpion 2.0 meets Centipede Partners at the end of season 4. So let me know in comments, you got probably another 5 chapters until the story gets to that scene so let me know your feelings as soon as possible.**

* * *

Paige sat on the couch crying after Cabe had left. 'Why was this so hard? Why am I putting so much stock in what Toby is saying? Why can't I trust my own feelings? Why can't I trust what Cabe is telling me? Is it really so important to me that Walter be more normal emotionally? Why isn't he enough the way he is now? He was at the wedding, on the island, for the months since then. I've never been unhappy with him. I don't like his lectures so is it really so important that he didn't care about what my friends do?' She jumped as the door opened when Ralph came in. "Ralphy," she held her arms out towards him.

Ralph quickly moved over to the couch and dropped his backpack on the floor as she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him fiercely. She sat down and patted the couch next to her and he sat down and looked up in her beautiful face.

"Baby, Cabe came by, he said," she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, "That Walter needs to be able to talk with you." She opened her eyes and stared into his. "I know this will go against everything Toby is saying but I want you to start emailing Walter." She saw him smile, "But baby, that's it, no going to see him, no phone calls, no skype. Just email, can you agree to that?"

Ralph leaned over and hugged his Mom tightly, "I can do that Mom, thank you."

Paige smiled with tears running down her face, "Whatever you do this is only between you and Walter. Do not tell the guys and no communicating anything about Centipede Partners okay?"

Ralph nodded, "Can I start sending my Caltech work back to Walter for him to keep checking it?"

Paige nodded, "Well, you better send a copy to Sly so he doesn't get suspicious."

Ralph hugged his Mom again and kissed her and grabbing his backpack he ran into his bedroom. She smiled noticing he left the door open for the first time since that night. Her heart felt better for doing that, if only she could give herself permission to just forget what was going on and go over and see Walter as easily.

* * *

Walter called the company he had a job bid for asking if he should still show up and he'd sighed as he was told there was no need, they'd heard about Paige no longer being there and they just weren't willing to take a chance on him without her.

He looked down and realized he had placed Cabe's check on top of Florence's and forgotten to give it to her. He picked it up and started to stand when he heard a bell on his laptop. He looked and saw he had a new email. Curious he brought up his email program and saw an email from ScorpJr1. Tears ran instantly down his face as he saw the subject line, 'Hey Dad'. He clicked the message:

"Dad,

Mom gave me permission to communicate with you through emails if that's okay. I can also send you my Caltech work if you are up to reviewing it for me again. If you aren't I can keep sending it to Sly. I'm really missing you, I wish I was there talking to you instead of having to resort to email. How are you doing? How is Scorpion doing? Anything exciting that you can tell me about? Grandpa came by last night and had invited us to come over to have dinner with you guys but Mom's just having such a hard time about all of this. Wish I could go into details but I can't. I'm doing okay, I've been so mad and depressed since that night. I didn't even get to really talk to you about it. My counselor at school has been working with me trying to help me through all of this. I hope you are talking to someone to help you. I'll attach my latest papers to this in hopes you are able to go over them. I love you Dad.

Your son,

Ralph."

Walter collapsed half in relief and half in sorrow and he just cried at his desk.

* * *

Florence answered the knock on her door and found a delivery man with some flowers for her. She instantly smiled as she accepted them and took a deep breath of their fragrance. She pulled the card out as the door shut behind her. "Had a wonderful evening with you, hope you feel the same, –T. A single tear made its way down her cheek as she smiled.

* * *

Ted waved as he saw Cabe pull into his parking spot inside the parking garage connected to the Homeland office. As Cabe got out of his SUV Ted's phone beeped and he took it out and saw he had a notification that his flowers had been delivered and he smiled. Cabe saw the smile as he walked up, "Good news?"

Ted laughed, "Not exactly, just a message the flowers I sent to someone were delivered."

Cabe nodded, "I'm sure Florence will appreciate that."

Ted stared at him for a moment.

Cabe laughed, "I'd just pulled up outside of the Garage when I saw you two come out of her lab like you were going on a date. And she came over earlier while I was at the Garage and told us about you taking her to dinner."

Ted laughed, "Been trying to figure out what our next date should be. She's so cerebral I'm out of my element."

Cabe laughed as they got in the elevator. "I hear you there. Those kids are so hard to guess at, well other than Paige, she's pretty down to Earth."

Ted looked at him a moment, "You know, speaking of Paige, I trust your instincts about the former team members but I got to ask you, should I take another run at them? Last night no one showed up to tag the building, it just screams weird. I mean sure all the gear could have scared them off, but no one and I mean no one showed up to even see the gear. The video footage was completely clean. Didn't even see any of the homeless last night, it's so weird."

Cabe looked at him puzzled as the elevator stopped on Katharine's floor and they stepped off. "That is weird. I'm as convinced as ever that Paige is innocent in this. Toby has the poor kid in knots over Walter and I'd love to have five minutes in a locked room with that," Cabe looked around, "Person."

Ted nodded his head, "Maybe that is where I should start then. From my interview with Sylvester and talking to Walter I am sure he can't be the culprit, he said he has major fears relating to the dark and that neighborhood in general."

"Yea, some of the messages seem like something Sly could do but giving the time frame, I just can't believe that." Cabe told him.

"Oh, that reminds me. I wanted to ask you about this former team member," Ted dug into his notebook, "Here it is, Mark Collins, could this be his doing?"

Cabe nodded, "Without a doubt. Collins is a real piece of work. Walter and the gang had been trying their damnedest to find him for about the last six months. He convincingly arranged evidence that put me on the hot seat to go to prison for the rest of my life. This would be rather petty for him, but considering how much he hates Walter, it certainly could be some kind of first strike since the team broke up."

Ted nodded, "Okay then, I'm going to go talk with Toby and Happy since I haven't talked to them yet and then I'm going to start digging into this Collins character if I get a good vibe from them."

Cabe nodded and shook his hand as they split. "Hey Allison, is Katharine available?" Cabe asked her secretary.

Allison smiled, "Let me check." Allison picked up her phone and hit a button, "Agent Gallo is here Ma'am. Yes Ma'am." She hung up the phone, "You can go in Agent Gallo."

Cabe smiled, "As long as we've known each other, I think you can call me Cabe don't you?"

Allison smiled, "Okay Cabe."

Cabe walked in and closed the door behind him and started to speak when Katharine held a finger up and then hit a button initiating sonic protocols. Cabe looked at her puzzled. "After your last visit here I found out someone was trying to listen in on our conversations."

"Carlson?" Cabe asked shocked.

"That's my guess. How's Walter doing?" Katharine asked.

Cabe sat down, "Not good, clients are leaving Scorpion and potential clients are turning him down the second they find out that Paige isn't with him anymore. But I figure he could deal with that if Paige was in his life still. He's so messed up over this."

"I've heard the rumors and one of those rumors is that Carlson is actually leaking the fact that Paige isn't with Scorpion anymore and what a pain Walter is on his own.

Cabe's face darkened, "That son of a…" Cabe caught himself as he stood up and began pacing the office.

"I've got a couple of friends in the private sector, I could call and see if they have anything they'd be willing to farm out to him." Katharine offered.

Cabe smiled, "I'd appreciate that; not sure Walter would. He'd probably tell you not to waste your clout."

"That sounds like Walter. I just read Markus's report; the building wasn't tagged last night?" Katharine asked.

Cabe shook his head, "I was just talking with him. He thinks it is pretty suspicious that no one even showed up in the neighborhood, not even close enough to see all the gear that was there. He's going to go interview Toby and Happy and depending on how he feels about that, he wants to dig into Collins."

"Oh Lord, do you think he's back?" Katharine asked surprised.

"Not sure, it certainly is possible. He loves to play head games." Cabe told her.

* * *

As Ted got in his car his phone rang, looking at it he saw Florence's name come up. He smiled as he answered it. "Good afternoon Florence."

Florence smiled, "Thank you for the flowers, they are lovely."

"Not as lovely as you though." Ted told her. Florence blushed. "I realize we just went out last night, but I had such a good time, I thought maybe we could catch dinner tonight, maybe a movie?"

"I'd be agreeable to that." Florence told him.

"Great, how about I pick you up at six then?" Ted asked.

"Six sounds great, I'll see you then." Florence told him.

* * *

"Dear Ralph,

I can't begin to explain how much I have missed you and your Mom these past few days. I'd been so worried you were mad at me and that is why I hadn't heard anything back from you. Please tell your Mom I am very grateful she said you could contact me through email. It's so much better than the silence. I'd be happy to continue going through your work at Caltech for you. It's been hard but I have been okay. Lots of work to keep me busy for the most part. Without Sly to hand off some of the programming tasks to it seems like every job takes three times as long. Without Happy I did have to cancel a couple of jobs that needed her expertise, not enough time to find a competent replacement for her and get the job done. Cabe said he thought there were more jobs with Homeland coming so I might scale back on how many private jobs I sign up for. I left a voice mail for your Mom earlier, I told her if there is anything at all either of you need, no matter how big or small, let me know, it would be my pleasure to help. Also, I'm attaching a scan of my job recommendation to this. She can print it out to put on any job application she fills out. I've gone over all your work you sent with your email and it all looks awesome buddy. I love you both so very much.

Forever honored to be your Dad,

Walter."

* * *

Happy opened their door, "Happy Quinn? I'm agent Markus, Homeland. May I speak with you and your husband?"

Happy looked over at Toby lying on the couch, "Sure, but if you touch my husband I'm going to snap your neck, deal?"

Ted smiled, "Sounds reasonable, at least until I have reason to touch him."

Happy stepped back and gestured and Ted stepped inside. "Have a seat," Happy told him as she sat down next to Toby as he slowly sat up.

Ted saw the bandage on his neck, "You okay?"

Toby nodded, "Got clipped by a bicyclist the other night."

"I see. Well first I want to apologize for agent Gallo's actions the other day. He should have approached that situation a lot differently." Ted told them.

Toby rubbed his neck where the bruise was still very visible, "Well having an agent almost die is pretty stressful plus having messages writing on the Garage to tear Walter apart will drive him over the edge faster than anything else."

"That's very considerate of you, not sure I would be as forgiving in the same situation." Ted told them.

"I certainly am not." Happy told him.

"Cabe told me he was sure neither of you were involved in the actions going on at the Garage but I need to investigate the matter a bit further as lead agent." Happy and Toby both nodded. "Were you aware that there was an explosion over by the Garage the other night?" They both shook their heads. "Someone put an explosive device in one of the derelict cars to draw the agent who was keeping watch on the Garage away and they tagged the Garage again." Ted told them

"Wait, are you accusing us of something?" Happy started to get mad.

"Accusing? No, but it is curious, there is an explosion and here you sit with a wound." Ted said.

"You can go to our favorite pizza place and asked them about it. They called the EMT's." Happy said as she became angry and jumped up. "I think it's time for you to leave."

"Sure, what's the name of this pizza place?" Ted asked while opening up his notebook.

Ted got back into his car and pulled his phone out and called Homeland. "Hey Cynthia, it's Markus, I need you to run a check on an emergency call from Jocko's pizza for an ambulance for a Toby Curtis. Thanks." Ted hung up as he continued to look up at their home. Ted opened his messenger app and hit Cabe's contact. "Cabe; just had a short conversation with Toby and Happy before being asked to leave. Something isn't right here. While I believe what they said, there is something hinkey with this Toby character." He hit send and then his phone rang and he hit answer, "Cynthia, thanks for getting back to me so quick. Oh yea? Okay and he refused further treatment? Interesting, okay, thank you Cynthia," Ted hung up.

Ted went to start his car when he noticed an oil spot on the other side of their driveway. He got out of his car and walked over and examined it, clearly fresh and fairly clean. He looked around and all the homes in the area were fairly newer models definitely two hundred thousand plus, no one seemed to be hurting for cash so why was there an oil stain? He saw their neighbor come out and he walked over and stopped her from getting into her car. "Agent Markus, Homeland, can I ask you a few questions?"

The woman was nervous at first but after examining his badge she relaxed and nodded her head. "There is an oil spot here on the street; do you know whose car made it? And when it might have been made?" Ted asked.

"Huh, no I don't. My husband is going to be ticked. He's a neat freak. I doubt if it was before last night though. My husband would have seen it when he came home last night and he would have been ranting the entire time trying to get rid of it." The woman told him.

Ted pulled his card out, "Could you give me a call if you happen to see a vehicle come and park there? Or if your husband might know whose car might have leaked the oil." She reached out and took the card and nodded.

Ted smiled and turned and got back in his car and then drove off.


	13. Chapter 13

"You okay Fungus? You look a little strange." Happy asked.

"Feeling a little tired my neck is a little warm too. Might be a slight infection setting in." Toby told her.

"That's what you get for not going to the hospital." Happy smacked his arm after handing him his sandwich and fries from his favorite burger joint.

"Yea, yea, I guess I need to write a script for an antibiotic to nip it in the bud." Toby told her.

* * *

Ralph was more his old self as they sat eating dinner after he received Walter's email. Paige marveled at just how much he changed in the short few hours since she told him he could email Walter. Paige smiled and laughed with him as he opened up more about his day and his school work from Caltech. She was feeling so good about letting him communicate with Walter. "Oh, Dad attached this to the email; he said you can put it with any job application you fill out." Ralph told her as he handed her a copy of the recommendation he wrote.

Paige cautiously took it from him and read it.

"To Whom It May Concern,

My name is Walter O'Brien and I was Paige Dineen's employer for the last four years. I can not recommend her high enough for any position she applies for. If it was within my power I would never have let her leave, if it was something as simple as salary or benefits she wanted I'd pay any price to keep her. She simply is the best. Dedicated and driven to always give her best to her job. Anything from having to work late to last minute international travel, she's a team player who does her absolute best at whatever job she's assigned. She is a fast learner and quick on her feet. A lot of our jobs were governmental and unfortunately I can not go into details but she was always a professional and earned the respect of everyone involved. I'm available for any follow up questions you may have.

Sincerely,

Walter O'Brien

Scorpion"

Ralph watched as her eyes teared up.

* * *

In contrast Walter was more withdrawn as he sat at the kitchen table with Cabe and Allie as they ate dinner. He poked his fork around his food and moved it from place to place but not once did it leave his plate. Remembering what Walter had told him earlier Cabe made sure that he touched Allie as he normally would, hold her hand, brush a hair out of her face and Allie made sure to return those little affections. Cabe cleared his throat, "Dinner not agreeable Walt?"

Walter looked up, "Not really hungry. I might just put it in the fridge for tomorrow."

Cabe nodded, "Right next to your fermented fish dinner from the other night?"

Walter slammed his fork on the table and got up and stormed over to his desk and sat down and stared out the window.

Allie looked at Cabe, "Sweetie, we got to be careful how we push him."

Cabe sighed, "I know, but he isn't eating except sometimes at dinner. He's already losing weight. It won't be long before," he left it hanging. Cabe stood up and walked over to Walter's desk, "Walt, I'm sorry, I'm not trying to push; I'm just worried about you."

Walter just nodded.

"I know you told me your stomach was in knots and it was hard to eat, what if I brought some of those meal replacement shakes? Would you drink those, see if they might sit easier in your stomach?" Cabe asked.

Walter shrugged his shoulders, "I guess I could try one sometime."

* * *

Sylvester sat in the basement of the Warlock's chest as they played their weekly fantasy game while eating cold cut sandwiches from the local sub shop.

* * *

"How are things going trying to catch the person tagging the Garage?" Florence asked Ted as they sat in the restaurant eating.

Ted nodded as he cut his steak, "It's so weird. No one showed up last night. Not even any homeless showed up. The surveillance cameras would have picked up someone three blocks before they would have known we had the place staked out."

"That is weird. I would imagine it was a relief for Walter and Cabe at any rate. It is to me, it was so creepy thinking someone was stalking around the building like that." Florence told him.

"While I am keeping the surveillance on the situation for now, I'm moving the investigation towards Toby. I was over there earlier and met with him and Happy for the first time. Something is surely hinkey with that guy. I just can't put my finger on it." Ted said as he put another bite in his mouth.

Florence nodded as she took a sip of wine. "I can understand that, I never felt too comfortable around him. Maybe it was just the way he always seemed to be trying to analyze me but it just seemed creepy."

Ted laughed, "If he wants to analyze something he should look in the mirror. There's a serious screw loose in him. And you know what else is kind of weird? Their neighborhood is somewhat affluent. I ran a check on it and the whole subdivision is well over two hundred thousand a house. Most of the houses that had single incomes are well over sixty thousand a year. And yet, there was a fresh spot of clean motor oil on the street by their house. Talked with one of the neighbors and she had no clue about it, said her husband was going to freak out about the oil, some kind of neat freak."

"That is kind of weird; I wouldn't think anyone in that category would be driving a car that would be old enough to be leaking oil there. Well unless they had recent damage or had an older car for a kid I suppose." Florence commented.

Ted smiled, "Just makes me wonder if he actually detonated that car and his car was hit by some shrapnel. But there is no other car in their names and the agent didn't see any other car so. I don't know, maybe I am just looking for a reason. I'm sorry Florence; I shouldn't be talking about this on our date."

Florence smiled, "That's okay, I find it a little fascinating. Plus you have a pleasant voice." Florence blushed.

Ted smiled, "Thank you, my ex said my voice grated on her nerves by the time we finally called it quits."

Florence laughed and smacked his hand, "No she didn't."

Ted laughed, "You got me."

* * *

Cabe and Allie finished their meal and cleaned up while covering Walter's dinner up and putting it in the fridge. They stopped at his desk, "I guess we'll go then Walter, unless you'd like company for a little longer?" Cabe asked.

Walter shook his head, "Thank you both for caring enough to come over. Sorry I wasn't better company."

Allie kissed Cabe's cheek and walked over to the door and stepped outside. "I am sorry about pushing you to eat Walter; it's just that I am so worried. I don't want to call an ambulance for you but you are really starting to lose weight. You're also starting to develop dark circles around your eyes and it's scary." Cabe told him.

"I understand Cabe, you and Allie have a good night and I'll see you tomorrow." Walter told him.

Cabe sighed and left turning out the lights before he stepped out and locked the door. He checked in with the agent that was in charge of the scene at the time and then they left. "I'm sorry we couldn't stay longer Cabe, but that presentation is in the morning." Allie told him.

Cabe smiled and squeezed her hand, "No worries. I'm so thankful you are willing to do this for me." Allie smiled and laid her head against his arm.

* * *

Ralph was lying in bed reading when Paige came in to say goodnight. "Mom, can you do me a favor please?"

Paige kissed his forehead, "Of course baby."

"If the guys come over anymore, make sure they are gone before I get home." Ralph looked up at his Mom.

Paige looked puzzled and sat down on the side of his bed. "What's this about Ralphy?"

"Mom, I get that you are putting all this trust in Toby as is Sly and Happy, but what he is saying is completely wrong. I don't know what his game is but I do not want to be around them anymore. Please?" Ralph looked at her imploringly.

Paige sighed, "I understand baby. I'll do my best to make sure they are gone before you get home. But you know when we get an office to work out of there will be times you have to be there right?"

Ralph nodded, "Hopefully we can keep those to a minimum."

"A-are you mad at me too baby?" Paige asked with fear in her eyes.

Ralph shook his head, "Not really, I know you think trusting Toby is for the best and Toby's story seems plausible to you."

Paige smiled, "Is that the polite way of calling me normal intellectually?"

"No, at least that isn't what I meant to imply but now that you said that, I can see how it could be. I'm sorry." Ralph told her.

Paige smiled and kissed his forehead again, "Its okay baby I am normal so it's not an insult. I love you, sleep well and pleasant dreams and don't stay up too much longer okay?"

Ralph looked into her eyes, "Mom, you have to know you are anything but normal. If you don't believe me, you should really go and reread that recommendation from Dad again. He spelled it out quite well how far above normal you are."

Paige smiled as she remembered the words, "You want your door open or closed?" Paige asked as she stood up.

"Open please," Ralph smiled as he closed his book and turned the lamp on his night stand off and closed his eyes.

Paige stood at the door with her shoulder leaning against the jam for several minutes just watching him, her heart just ached with the love she had for him before she went into her room and gathered her sweat pants and one of Walter's shirts and walked into the bathroom and took her shower. She sat at her makeup table and opened the bottom left drawer and pulled out the plastic bag she had the pillow case in. She opened the bag and pulled the pillow case out and rubbed it around the collar of her shirt and then put it back into the bag and sealed it and then put it back into the drawer. She curled up in the recliner inhaling the soft fragrance left over from the last time Walter had been in the chair and from the pillow case she had wiped around the shirt and she closed her eyes as the tears that came from her haunted memories every night since that night fell.

* * *

Ted opened the car door so Florence could step out. "That was an interesting movie Ted, what made you choose that one?" Florence asked.

"A friend had recommended it. I think he did it as a joke on me. Sorry." Ted said.

Florence laughed, "Its okay the CGI was really nice. I don't think I ever saw a superhero movie before."

He laughed as he reached out and took her keys and unlocked her door and opened it holding her keys out for her. Florence smiled and stepped up close to him. She took the keys and looked up in Ted's green eyes and smiled and kissed him on the mouth. "Would you like to come in for some coffee?" Florence asked hopefully.

Ted smiled, "I think I would really like that."

Florence entered and Ted followed her in.

* * *

Walter lay in his bed staring up at the picture Ralph had drawn and it tore at his heart as much as it made him smile. He pulled Paige's pillow over and laid it in front of him and he could smell her shampoo on it and the tears broke over his eyes as he lay there trying to sleep.

Walter heard Paige moan in excitement, his hands ran down her body as he kissed her neck, "Oh God," she said. "Yes, like that Ted." Walter's eyes opened instantly and he jerked his head around and he heard the rhythmic squeaking of a bed and he quickly realized that Florence and Ted were in her loft. He quickly got up and grabbed his clothes and fled to the living room. After putting on his clothes all the while hearing their passion the entire time, he fled down the stairs and into the airstream. Lying down in the bed he made a mental note to speak to her in the morning but then he thought about all the nights he had been passionate with Paige and what she had to have endured. At first he was embarrassed and he changed that mental note to call the landlord and find a way to limit sound transference between the two sides.

He lay there for quite some time; the sounds while muted were still noticeable since he knew what was going on. He remembered something and he got back up and walked into the front of the airstream and turned the beat box that had been moved into it on. The music was enough to drown out the remaining sounds and he returned to the bed and got back in it. But sleep never returned for the rest of the night.

* * *

A little after midnight the powder blue van turned back onto Happy and Toby's street and once again turned its lights out as it approached their house and finally stopped just past their driveway. Collins climbed back into the back and closed the curtains. "So Tobias; how was your day?" He turned the power on and watched as the computer came up and connected to the device in Toby's neck. "I trust you didn't have any headaches today." He typed in several commands and watched as the neuro-connections started to increase, "Happy still treating you well?" He smiled as he set his watch and then he relaxed on the floor and fell asleep.

When his watch began beeping at five he got up and checked the computer. "Excellent," he said as he disconnected the system and got into the driver's seat and starting his van he drove away.

* * *

Allie got up a little early and began getting ready for the presentation they had this morning. She woke Cabe up long enough to see if he wanted to get ready and take her to work or if she should drive herself. Cabe smiled and pulled her back in bed and kissed her soundly for several minutes. "I'll get up and take you," he told her. Allie just smiled as he climbed out of bed and walked into the bathroom.


	14. Chapter 14

**Happy Thanksgiving! Or Happy Thankful Thursday if you don't celebrate the US holiday. I am so thankful to those of you that take some time to comment back to my chapters, it is much appreciated to know that you are enjoying the stories that reveal themselves to me. **

**I am also so thankful to Elyes and Katharine and all the other wonderful cast and crew that brought this amazing show to life for us! **

**These next 2 chapters are Walter centric and only encapsulate about 8 hours. Tomorrow's chapter really tore me up writing it this one wasn't too kind itself. To the adventure! -Tim**

* * *

Walter's phone alarm went off at 8 AM and he slowly stretched and got up. He cautiously turned off the beat box and listened; he opened the door of the airstream and listened. Nodding he finally stepped out and walked up the stairs to the loft and getting a change of clothes took a shower. He stared into his reflection in the mirror, Cabe had been right the circles around his eyes were dark and he was losing weight. He sighed as he couldn't summon the energy to even care. He picked up his shaving cream can and then put it back down, what was the point? Not like they had a job to worry with or a perspective job to go to. He finished dressing and walked into his bedroom and looked at the drawing and smiled. He took it down and carefully put it in the box he had brought up for Paige's things, he picked up the picture that sat on his night stand of the three of them and smiled at it and placed it in the box and carried it down and out to his car.

As he climbed into his car he saw the door to Florence's lab open and Ted Markus stepped out and then turned around and leaned in, probably kissing Florence goodbye he thought. Walter waited until Ted got in his car and then drove away. Once Florence had closed her door he started his car and took off. He drove over to Michael's arts and crafts and took the box inside and walked back to the framing department. He showed the drawing to the young saleslady and she showed him several nice frames she could put it in. Studying them he finally made a choice and snapped a picture of the drawing before taking the invoice from her. Getting back in his car he drove over to the photo studio who took the family portraits of them and walked in. Showing them the photo they confirmed they still had the original source and he ordered a framed 40" x 30" reprint.

* * *

As he returned to the Garage he drove by Kovelsky's and he pulled into the parking lot and just as he reached for the key he stopped. He just couldn't go back in there, not without Paige. The staff stared in puzzlement as they saw Walter's car back out and drive off. Agent Stevens was back on duty that morning, he'd finally got over the feelings of failing the other night and had asked Markus to give him another chance. Ted just laughed and told him he didn't need another chance as he didn't lose the first one. Stevens saw Walter approaching when he realized something wasn't right. He yelled but watched helpless as Walter was clearly asleep as his car drove over the stop sign as it pulled to the right and then ran into the barrier wall of the overpass at just over thirty miles an hour.

* * *

Stevens's call for assistance reached Cabe just before he pulled into the parking garage at Homeland and he quickly flipped on his lights and siren as he swore and took off for the Garage. Cabe arrived on scene to see Walter's car smashed into the barrier wall and his heart skipped a beat. He saw that the fire rescued had used the Jaws of Life and forced the door open and cut through the roof support and forced the roof up to give them access to Walter. He parked next to the downed stop sign and jumped out of his SUV and started running. He saw Stevens arguing with local PD telling them that Homeland had jurisdiction. Cabe pushed in past the rescue workers and saw they'd just got Walter out of the car and put him on the gurney. His hand covered his mouth as he saw all the blood on his face, "Walter," he barely whispered. One of the EMTs looked at him and saw his badge.

"He's going to be okay, the blood is from a broken nose but he's probably got a concussion and blunt force trauma to his chest." The EMT told him.

He stepped up and reached out and ran his hand through his hair and tears filled his eyes, "Stubborn son of a,"

"Cabe," Florence yelled as she finally came out after hearing the sirens while taking a shower. She ran over and gasped as she saw Walter lying there. Cabe stepped back and took her in his arms as they watched the EMTs continued to assess Walter's condition. They heard another siren and turned to look and saw Ted as he pull up behind Cabe's SUV and he came running over. Florence turned from Cabe and grabbed hold of Ted crying.

"What happened?" Ted asked hugging her tightly.

Cabe shrugged, "I'm going to guess he fell asleep at the wheel."

Ted looked at the EMTs, "No bullet wounds or any other sign of physical trauma not connected to the crash?" They both frowned and shook their heads. Ted nodded, "He's a high value government asset who's been under physical threats the last few days, I need to know for sure this was just an accident." He showed them his badge, "This," he gestured, "is under my authority so I need you to double check for any other physical trauma if he is stable."

The EMTs nodded and began rechecking for any other physical signs of trauma.

"Cabe, I'm so sorry man." Ted told him.

Cabe just nodded as he watched the EMTs work.

Ted stepped away from the scene for a moment and pulled out his phone and made a phone call. Cabe and Florence heard him arguing for a minute and then he hung up and came back up, "Cedars is expecting you guys so as soon as you finish get this man there, I'll have local PD escort you." He turned and walked over to where Stevens was still talking to the officers and threw Homeland's weight around and brow beat the cops until they finally gave in and agreed to escort the ambulance.

Finally after double checking the EMTs began to move the gurney over to the ambulance when Walter woke up. Instantly he began struggling and fighting to get up. "Let me go this instant," Walter yelled.

"Walt, you were just in an accident they got to take you to the hospital to be sure you are okay." Cabe told him.

Walter looked puzzled, "Cabe? What the hell; let me go right now."

"Sir, you got a broken nose and probably a concussion, you need to go to the hospital." The EMT told him.

"No, I do not consent to this. I know my rights, let me go." Walter demanded.

The EMT reached down and began to loosen the strap holding him. "What the hell do you think you are doing? You said he could have a concussion, you can't listen to what he is saying."

The EMT looked at his partner, "Sir, we can't force medical care on anyone."

"Like hell you can't, I'm his next of kin and I am authorizing you to transport and treat him." Cabe glared at Walter.

Walter looked up with a bit of fear, "Cabe, Cabe, don't do this, please. I'm fine."

"Like hell you are. You've been running on fumes for days, barely eating, probably not sleeping and you just crashed because of it. You go get checked out and rest for a few days where you can be cared for." Cabe grabbed his hand half ordering and half pleading.

Tears ran down the sides of Walter's face as he pleaded, "Please Cabe, don't do this. I'm fine, honest. I-I can't miss Ralph's next email, please."

Cabe closed his eyes as he shook his head, "You're going. If you stop resisting I'll go get your laptop and bring it to you at the hospital and you can still get his email, deal?"

Walter put his arm over his eyes and nodded slowly. The EMTs lifted the gurney and loaded him into the ambulance and drove off with a police cruiser leading and following the ambulance. Florence watched as she held onto Ted crying at all the pain she helped to cause. Cabe looked at Ted and reached out to shake his hand. "Thank you for all you did."

Ted smiled and shook his hand, "Of course my friend."

* * *

Toby was laying back on the couch flipping channels when he clicked over to a local channel, he saw helicopter video of the area around the garage and saw Walter's car smashed into the barricade wall and he sat up instantly seeing how they had to cut it open and blood all over the airbag, "Walt?" And the device in his neck initiated a small electrical stimulation and his eyes kind of unfocused just a tad and he flipped the channel as he shook his head and lay back down and continued to watch TV.

* * *

Cabe sat down at Walter's desk and he noticed he was breathing fast and his hands were shaking. He closed his eyes and tried to relax and just told himself over and over that Walter was fine, he'd be home in a couple of days. Finally his breathing slowed and his hands quit shaking as he thought of Allie. He looked at Walter's laptop and finally got it to power down. He closed the screen and disconnected the power cord. As he stepped back out of the Garage he saw Ted talking to a tow truck driver who was beside Walter's car looking under it. He walked up in time to hear, "Yea, sorry Ted. I'm sure they will total this car. Way too much structural damage, engine mounts are broken, transaxle is snapped in half. Your friend was lucky, a little harder and the engine would have been sitting in his lap."

Ted nodded and looked at Cabe as he joined them, "Hey Cabe, this is a buddy of mine that runs his own body shop. I called him to come get the car as soon as the call came over but he says it's a lost cause. What do you think Walter will want to do with it?"

Cabe nodded, "Well I guess we could put it in the Garage and he could decide what to do after he gets out of the hospital."

Ted nodded, "Jerry, you mind hooking it up and putting it in there for us?"

Jerry shook his head, "I can do that Ted, no worries."

Ted pulled a fifty out of his wallet, "This take care of it?"

Jerry smiled, "I'd tell you no charge but I don't want to stand here and argue with you for a half hour." He took the bill from Ted as Ted laughed.

Ted clapped Cabe on the shoulder and pointed over to Stevens and they walked over together. Stevens held out several pieces of paper and Ted took them and checked them and then signed them. "Here you go Cabe, for Walter's insurance company." Ted held them out for him.

Cabe looked down and saw cause of accident listed as stress from threats against his life. Cabe looked at Ted and Ted just nodded, "Walter doesn't need anymore grief over this crap."

Cabe smiled, "Thanks Ted, I really appreciate that." Cabe held out his key for the Garage, "You mind opening the back door for the driver to put Walt's car inside so I can go on to the hospital?"

Ted took the key and smiled, "You got it Cabe, tell Walter we're pulling for him."

* * *

Cabe waved as he got in his SUV and took off. Cabe hit a button, "Call Allie." "Calling Allie" the computer answered.

"Hey sexy," Allie answered her phone.

Cabe smiled, "Hey sweetie, I'm on my way to Cedars, Walt fell asleep while driving his car and hit the barricade wall outside of the Garage."

"Oh my gosh, Cabe is he okay?" Allie asked with fear.

"The EMTs think so, broken nose, maybe a concussion." Cabe told her.

"Well don't worry about lunch with me then, I'll just order something. Take care of Walter and I'll see you this evening." Allie told him.

Cabe smiled, "Thanks sweetie, I appreciate that."

"You want me to call Paige?" Allie asked.

Cabe thought about it for a moment, "My first instinct is to say yes, maybe it would get that wedge out of her that Toby drove in but I'm not sure. I'll think about it."

"Alright Cabe, I'll let you go and see you this evening then. I love you." Allie told him.

"I love you Allie," Cabe told her with a smile.

* * *

Cabe walked into the ER and flashed his badge, "Walter O'Brien?"

The volunteer behind the desk looked him up on the computer and filled out a visitor tag and gave it to Cabe and gave him directions. Cabe walked into the room and saw Walter lying there sound asleep. The blood had been cleaned up and he had some good bruising going on. Cabe sat down in the chair next to the bed and reached up and took his hand as a tear ran down his cheek. He saw several IV bags hooked up to his right arm. A nurse walked in, "Oh, hello, I'm Judy."

Cabe smiled, "Hey Judy, I'm Cabe."

Judy smiled, "You're Walter's dad, he told me you'd be showing up soon. You'll be happy to know his nose didn't actually break if you can believe that."

Cabe looked shocked, "Really? From all blood at the scene I would have been positive it was."

"Dr Keller was more concerned about his malnutrition and his apparent lack of sleep." Judy told him.

"Yea, he's girlfriend broke up with him a number of days ago and he's been a real mess since then. I've tried to get him to eat but he's just too stubborn." Cabe told her. Cabe frowned and he looked at Judy, "Not Janice Keller is it?"

Judy looked surprised, "You know Dr Keller?"

Cabe laughed, "She actually dated Walter a few years ago for a few months."

Judy smiled, "Seriously? That's a trip. She should be back in here in a little bit."

Cabe nodded.

Cabe had been there about ten minutes when Janice walked in, "Cabe? How are you?"

Cabe smiled, "Hey Janice, I'm okay since he's going to be okay."

Janice smiled, "Cabe, I'm still waiting on the head CT we had done but I am really concerned about Walter's malnutrition and it seems like he's not been sleeping. Can you tell me what is going on?"

Cabe nodded, "Yea, I've been struggling with him for a number of days now to eat but his girlfriend of almost a year broke up with him a few days ago and he's been a real mess since.

Janice stood there with her mouth open, "Are you kidding? He's been in one relationship for a year? That's amazing. I almost can't believe it really affected him like that. He was never emotional around me."

Cabe nodded, "Well the young lady in question had been working with him for 4 years before that helping him to grow emotionally. She's done a really amazing job with Walter."

Janice frowned, "That lady that was helping you guys on that cruise?"

Cabe nodded, "Paige Dineen."

Janice frowned, "She was the waitress at that little diner as I recall. What made her so special?"

Cabe just smiled, "You'd have to know her; she has a personality that transcended normal stuff."

Janice scoffed, "Must not have transcended too much if she still broke up with him."

Cabe looked over at her, "I know Walter told me he broke up with you and that probably hurt a lot all things considered, but she's like my daughter and I would appreciate you not speaking about her that way."

Janice became embarrassed as she realized just how catty she was being. "I'm sorry Cabe. I'll be back as soon as the CT comes back."

Cabe nodded and she left the room.


	15. Chapter 15

Cabe sat in the waiting room while they got Walter transferred to the room he'd been assigned. He took a swig of the coffee he'd poured and spit it out into the cup instantly. He walked over to the sink and poured it out. One of the people who was sitting in the room looked up, "That bad?"

Cabe nodded, "I don't know who made it, but I don't think they know how."

The woman laughed, "I got mine from the cafeteria. It's pretty decent."

Cabe nodded as he threw his cup away, "Guess I better go down there and get a cup then."

Turning the corner to the elevators Cabe ran into Florence and Ted coming up. Laughing in shock they followed with Cabe down to the cafeteria as he brought them up to date on Walter's condition and they all got coffee and returned to the waiting room.

* * *

Walter woke up and looked about confused as he struggled to make sense of his surroundings and then realized he was in a hospital. He saw the IV and different monitors and slowly he remembered being told he had been in an accident. He remembered fighting to get up and then Cabe forcing him to go to the hospital and he looked but didn't see his laptop anywhere. He heard voices in the hall one of them was definitely Cabe and he thought he heard Florence and another male voice but he wasn't connecting it to a name. Cabe walked in first followed by Florence and then agent Ted Markus. Cabe saw him awake and he just smiled, "Hey kid, how you feeling?" He stepped up next to his bed as Florence and Ted stepped up to the other side.

"A little confused," Walter told him.

They laughed, "Well you did a real number on your car and they had to cut you out with the Jaws of Life, so confusion would seem to be the proper feeling." Ted told him.

"What day is it, what time?" Walter asked almost in panic.

"Hey, calm down Walt." Cabe told him as the monitor showed his heart rate shot up to over 150 bpm. "You've only been out for a few hours."

Walter relaxed a little as his head hit the pillow and he closed his eyes for a moment, "Ralph?"

Cabe smiled, "Here's your laptop. I doubt he's sent you a new email yet, probably not even home from school."

Walter quickly grabbed it and powering it up he connected to the hospital wireless and then linked into the Garage's server but found no new email yet and he sighed in disappointment. "No word about this to anyone, okay?" Walter asked.

They all nodded. "Ted signed the accident report for your insurance contributing the accident to the stress over threats to your life so they don't give you too much grief over it. He also had the tow truck put the car in the Garage. You can decide what to do after you get out of here." Cabe told him.

"When's that going to be exactly?" Walter asked.

Cabe shook his head, "Janice said she wanted to keep you a couple of days to deal with the malnutrition and sleep deprivation. She said the CT scan was clear and your nose luckily didn't break. She chalked it up to your body being in a relaxed state since you were asleep, kind of like how a drunk isn't hurt as bad in an accident because they don't tense up before impact."

Walter looked up at Cabe, "Janice? Keller? As in my old girlfriend?"

Cabe smiled and nodded.

Walter closed his eyes, "Please, shoot me now."

They all laughed.

Cabe looked at Walter as he could tell he was thinking about something unpleasant when Walter opened his eyes and looked at Ted and Florence, "I'm grateful you guys came up here, but I need a moment with Cabe." They both nodded and Florence squeezed his hand before they left the room.

Cabe reached out to take his hand and Walter pulled his hand away, "Walt?" Cabe asked in confusion as he saw a tear run down his cheek.

"Cabe, you know how I feel about you. But I can't believe what you did to me back there. You humiliated me. You made me plead. Hell, you made me BEG, in front of strangers, in public. How could you do that to me? How could you humiliate me like that? What did I ever do to you to deserve that? Didn't I suffer enough at Paige's hands in front of the guys? Now you are doing it to me in front of people we don't even know?"

Florence gasped and put her hand to her mouth as she stood out in the hallway with Ted as they heard Walter's words.

Cabe swallowed hard as he felt tears run down his cheek, "Son, I wasn't trying to do any of that. You haven't been in your right mind since that night. You haven't been taking care of yourself. You needed to come here and if you weren't in the mental state you are in, you'd have known that and would have come willingly. I love you and I can't lose you."

Walter grimaced, "You love me? You blackmailed me to get your way. You ransomed my communication with Ralph to get your way. Is that love? You claim I haven't been in my right mind all this time and you decided to inflict more harm to me mentally by denying me the only access I have to my son?"

Tears ran down Florence's cheeks and Ted put his arms around her and hugged her tightly, he whispered, "You want to step down to the waiting room?" Florence shook her head as she tried to contain her feelings.

Cabe sat down in the chair by Walter's bed. "Son, I know it seems that way, but it really wasn't. I wouldn't ever do that. I fought with Paige to get her to at least allow that communication with you."

"What, so you just throw those words around like they have no weight or meaning? I'm not the robot I use to be Cabe. These feelings are new to me but they are still feelings and you stomped on them and twisted a knife into them to make me do what you wanted without a concern because…why? Because you really think I am still a robot? That words and feelings can't hurt me?" Walter continued.

Cabe shook his head, "Son, no, no, not at all. I am in awe of how far you have come. Maybe my fear caused me to say things I shouldn't have but no. I know you are not a robot, you never were, you just didn't know how to feel and express those feelings you had."

"Cabe, I opened up to you, I told you how this wasn't hurting me, but killing me. And today you humiliated me and threw more pain and anguish on me for what? Just to get your way so you feel better about how I am doing physically? Is that all you care about?" Walter began beating on his chest, "To you this form means something to you but this," he began beating his head and Cabe reached out and grabbed his hands. "This part of me means nothing to you. How could you? Is that what fear does to normals? To lash out and hurt those who are already overburdened?" Walter nearly yelled at Cabe as tears ran down both of their cheeks.

Cabe looked down at Walter, "I am so sorry Walt, I never considered it in that light. I never meant to hurt you more. You have got to believe that."

"What good is it if I am physically doing well but emotionally I am dying? I'm just trying my best to survive what is the worst part of my life. At least Paige was kind enough to do it semi-privately. If you ever do something like this to me again, we're done, forever." Walter told him as he turned his head away and stared out of the window.

"You're right son; you are trying your best. But can you answer me this, how can you survive to deal with everything emotionally if physically you are dying? I'm not trying to justify my actions today, I was dead wrong. I just want you to understand where I am coming from." Cabe continued to look at Walter but he remained quiet as he continued to look out the window.

* * *

Sylvester stood on the curb waiting on Paige, he'd found what he thought was a perfect office space for them to rent to test the waters for their new business venture and she'd agreed to pick him up and go check it out together. He saw her turn on his street and he smiled as he waved at her as if she had forgotten where he lived or what he looked like. He climbed into her car as soon as she stopped, "Good afternoon Sly, how you doing?" Paige asked.

Sylvester smiled, "Pretty good, I think you are going to like this place. Well according to the description online."

Paige laughed, "Well remember they often embellish those descriptions."

He handed her the address and she programmed her GPS and began following the directions. "How's Ralph doing? I didn't get his Caltech work last night." Sylvester said.

Paige frowned making a mental note to address that when Ralph got home. "Oh, he's really doing better. He might not have had any last night. I'll double check tonight or maybe it wasn't anything he thought he needed to have checked."

"He was really mad at us the other day, especially Toby; I thought maybe he didn't want me to check it anymore." Sylvester told her.

Paige nodded, "Well he is still pretty mad at all of us. He believes we are all making a huge mistake concerning Wal, well you know who."

Sylvester saw a tear run down her cheek, "You know; if you want to go see him you can. Nothing is stopping you."

Paige shook her head, "I don't know why but I have got to trust Toby in this regard."

"I wouldn't blame you for going and Toby has been wrong many times about Walter over the years, he could very well be wrong this time too. I wish my feelings over this were as pure as yours, you want him healthy and I just want to be done with him." Sylvester told her.

Paige audibly gasped at his words. "How could you say that? He's been your friend for so long."

Sylvester looked out the window, "I'm not really sure. I know I am still mad about Florence."

They rode in silence the rest of the way over to the small business complex and they saw a young woman standing outside of an empty business office. As they pulled up the young woman waved. "You must be my 1:30 I'm Terri." She greeted them as they got out of Paige's car.

"I'm Paige, this is Sylvester one of my business partners." Paige told her.

Terri smiled and walked them up the steps and unlocked the front door and held it open while they walked in.

Sylvester turned right and made a beeline towards the far corner open office that ran back to the left a little ways. "This would be a great spot for my desk and Toby's couch could go right back there. Paige smiled as she looked in the office he had passed by. She stepped back out and went down the hall that ran straight back from the front door. There was a large room on the left that also had a large over head door and she nodded thinking it would be a good place for Happy's work area. She stepped out and walked on back a little further and found another large room on the right behind the front office and thought it would make a good conference room. She stepped back out and walked the last few steps back to an open room at the end of the hall. She turned around and walked back to the front and not seeing Sylvester she walked down the hall he'd gone down and saw the area he liked and saw another room at end of it. He stepped out, "That could be our kitchen area." Paige smiled.

"Well I know we like the area and the set up here is acceptable to us, but we'll have to get our other two partners over to check it out and get their feelings on it. Do you have a copy of the contract I can take with us so we can go over it? As soon as they get a moment we can come back and let them look at it." Paige asked Terri.

Terri smiled and pulled the contract out and handed it to her, "This is a standard six month lease that Sylvester told me you were interested in with an option to extend if you want but you have to exercise that within the first three months."

Paige nodded, "I think it's perfect I'm sure we'll take it but as a partnership we have to have a consensus."

Terri smiled as she let them back out the front door.

Paige added the address to her GPS memory before they left, "You want me to drop you off back at home or the Warlock's Chest or something?"

"I thought we would go over and discuss it with Toby and Happy." Sylvester frowned.

Paige shook her head, "We can do it tomorrow; I have to be home when Ralph gets home. I got just enough time to take you someplace and get home to greet him."

Sylvester nodded, "Well take me by there, I can discuss it with them and show them the online virtual tour and we can go over the contract and we can all meet tomorrow."

Paige frowned, "You really want this don't you?" Sylvester nodded. Paige shook her head, "I guess I still don't get it Sly." Sylvester just turned his head to look out his window.

* * *

Florence and Ted waited for about a half hour after they no longer heard Walter and Cabe speaking and walked slowly back into Walter's room. "Hey guys." Ted said.

Walter still was looking out the window and Cabe was sitting in a chair, clearly miserable.

Florence stepped over to the other side of Walter's bed, "Walter, I am so sorry. Please don't be so upset with Cabe, he really was scared just like I was. You've been in such a bad place." Walter looked up at her. She looked down, "We were in the hallway and we heard everything. Had we realized what you were going to be talking about we wouldn't have stayed out there to start with. But Cabe was just trying to do his best for you."


	16. Chapter 16

Walter started to say something when his nurse walked in the room. She smiled at everyone. "Mr. O'Brien, I'm Sarah, your nurse. Dr. Keller has you on a double protein diet, this is your menu and the phone number to dietary is on it." She reached over and pulled his phone away from the wall and set it on top of the bedside table with the menu, "You have no restrictions on food and the full menu including breakfast items are available all day."

Walt turned his head to look at the nurse, "Thank you."

She smiled as she left the room. Ted looked at Cabe and Florence, "Hey, you guys mind letting me talk with Walter alone for a minute please?"

Florence shook her head and bent over and kissed Walter's forehead before leaving the room with Cabe. Ted followed them and closed the door before walking back to the bed.

"Walter, I know we don't know each other and while I do know what it's like to be dumped, I don't know what it's like to have an IQ like yours or to not be able to express my emotions like you. But I got to tell you, you're being a jerk. You believe you are dying over this? I can tell you Cabe is right there with you. I've known Cabe for years and he's barely keeping it together. If he loses you, he'll probably eat a bullet if his heart doesn't just stop first. He almost put his gun in his mouth when his daughter died."

"I'm not telling you this to guilt you, I'm just making sure you have the facts since you like facts. If this Paige really means that much to you then damn it, get your act together and get your ass over there and tell her. Grovel if you have to; show her you are not the man she thinks you are now. Put your pride on the shelf, put your intellect on the shelf and show her how you truly feel. Show her you are the man she fell in love with and prove you are capable of growing more. But get off Cabe's back over this. He loves you and wants nothing but the best for you, which includes you being with Paige and Ralph."

Walter stared at Ted for several minutes and then slowly nodded. Ted smiled and walked over and opened the door and gestured for Cabe and Florence to enter. Cabe sat down in the chair beside the bed as Florence stepped back to the other side of the bed. Walter slowly reached out to Cabe and Cabe smiled and reached up and took his hand.

Ted pulled his little notebook out and opened it. "Walter, I wanted to ask you about this Collins character. I understand there is some bad blood between you guys. Could he be behind the shenanigans going on outside of the Garage?"

Walter nodded, "It's a little simplistic for him but yes. He's a master manipulator who will use anything against someone. When it comes to his schemes he's usually got contingencies for his contingencies for his contingencies. Depending on what his goal is, this could be a simple smokescreen to keep people occupied while he carries out whatever it is that he has planned."

Ted nodded, "What exactly is the nature of the beef he has against you?"

Walter used the bed remote so he sat up in the bed, "Collins was a member of the team. He and I would get into mental discussions theorizing on all kinds of ideas, sometimes getting lost in pure thought. He always had an issue having an IQ lower than mine and it's arguably lower than Sly's; he'd lash out at the others all the time trying to manipulate them. We got lost in the theory of a brain interface system and at one point I realized just how far down the rabbit hole he had gone and I had him committed. That took a huge toll on me, if not for Happy I might not have made it. He's been mad about it ever since."

"Rabbit hole, is that some kind of euphemism?" Ted asked.

Walter shook his head, "It's a mental thing for people with high IQs. It's a place of pure thought where everything becomes secondary, no consumption of food or fluid, ignoring bodily functions. If it goes on too long you could die."

Ted nodded, "Wow, okay then, would any of the team be working with him?"

Walter shook his head no, "The team can't stand him and they certainly wouldn't trust him."

"I ask because as I told Florence I noticed by Happy and Toby's there is an anomaly. An oil spot, I know it doesn't sound like much. But it made me think he could either have plans to go after one of the other team members or is perhaps even working with one or more of them." Ted told him.

Walter looked at Cabe, "He hates Toby, he kidnap Toby once, almost succeeded in killing him. There is no way either Toby or Happy would work with Collins for anything."

Ted made a note, "Okay, what about Sylvester, is there any chance he would work with him?"

"I can't believe he would ever work with Collins. Collins always messed with Sly the most. Probably because Sly was the most susceptible to his manipulations," Walter answered.

"Wow, what did you guys ever see in this man to bring him into your group to start with?" Ted asked.

"His intellect was, seductive, in the sense that intellectually he could almost run stride for stride with me. It's hard to explain to someone who has never experienced it. Sadly I was willing to put up with a lot of his bad qualities for that connection. Even sadder is the fact it never was his bad qualities that made me get rid of him, but how far down the rabbit hole he had gone. If I had been a better friend back then I never would have brought him into the group or kept him around as long as I did and maybe none of this would be happening." Walter sighed.

Ted wrote some more down, "How about Paige? What was her experience with this character before you got rid of him? Could she be helping him?"

Walter shook his head, "Paige wasn't on the team back then. Her first encounter with him was when we had to work with him to stop a nuclear melt down. The team had painted a very good image of who Collins was and she was exposed to some of his manipulations when he tried to make her think that her involvement with the group and my connection with Ralph were merely an experiment. She came to see how evil Collins really is over the next two years. Her Mom was a very big manipulator and con woman, Paige almost hates her Mom for that, there is no way she would willingly work with that kind of person."

Ted sat down in a chair along the wall at the foot of Walter's bed. "Okay, let's say that everything that has happened at the Garage was part of Collins's plan. What comes next? How do we anticipate or figure out what he is going to do?"

Walter shook his head, "We've been trying to catch him for about six months now. We've got a server back at the Garage that has been running constantly trying to trace him through every means we have thought of but somehow he's either evading it or he isn't here in the States."

Ted sighed, "So we're back to the question is he involved? And if he is, who is doing this for him? What kind of resources would he have access too?"

"He's not quite the programmer or hacker I am but he is skilled, he could hack a bank and transfer money around or even issue credit cards to himself, give himself a completely new identity." Walter told him.

Ted laughed, "Great, so he could have a sizable fortune to work with, using an ID we have no clue of. Could he hack a facial recognition system and alter the images it uses to search for him?"

Walter nodded, "Easily."

Ted nodded, "I guess my next step is to check the various law enforcement databases and make sure that they are looking for the right person. But if he is involved, someone is helping him. Whoever it is will find I am relentless. Is there anyone who might hold a grudge against you that could be working with him since we have effectively eliminated your team members?"

Walter looked at Cabe; "Scorpion has made a number of enemies in the last four years. Anyone from private citizens including smugglers, drug dealers, multiple federal agents and agents of foreign countries, dictators and large corporations, it could be a pretty big list."

"Damn, you are not making this easy for me at all." Ted looked at Florence and back over to Walter, "Would it be okay if I took Florence to the Garage and looked through your case files? Something might pop out at me. But maybe to steer my investigation if you had to choose one entity out of all the people you have ticked off who would it be?"

Walter nodded, "Florence can show you where the case files are. I'm not sure, some certainly have reason to hate us more than others but like I said he could manipulate someone who has absolutely nothing to do with us into helping him."

Ted closed his notebook, "Okay, I'll let you get some rest and we'll go check it out and see if anything comes up."

Walter's nurse walked in a few minutes after Ted and Florence left, "Mr. O'Brien, dietary just called and said you hadn't ordered anything yet. I need you to make a selection for dinner and order it before I leave the room."

Walter sighed and looked at the menu and picked up his phone and dialed the number listed on the menu and placed his order.

The nurse and Cabe traded smiles as she turned to leave.

* * *

"Ralphy, come here please." Paige told Ralph when he walked in from school.

Ralph's smile changed and he sighed and walked over to the couch and sat down, "Hi Mom."

Paige smiled, "Remember what we talked about with you communicating with…Walter?"

"That it was only between Walter and me, not to tell the others and not to discuss anything about Centipede Partners." Ralph told her.

Paige nodded, "You forgot you were supposed to keep sending your Caltech work to Sly for him to check over for you. He commented to me today about it. Luckily he contributed it to you being mad at him. That may or may not work in the future so you got to remember to send your work or at least tell him you didn't have any that night but you can't pull that too often. Okay?"

Ralph nodded, "Sorry."

Paige smiled and hugged him, "I was thinking of fixing chicken piccata tonight for dinner, will that be okay with you?"

Ralph smiled and nodded.

* * *

Walter took one whiff of the smell of his tray as it came in the door and he clamped his hand over his face and waved the person off shaking his head. Cabe struggled to stifle a laugh as all the times Walter ordered the fermented fish and everyone else nearly lost their appetites and now the smell of hospital food was having the same effect on him. Cabe finally asked, "There is a pizza shop downstairs, you want me to go get you some?" Walter just nodded.

Cabe stepped out in the hallway and over to the nurses station. He saw Walter's nurse and told her about the problem with the food Walter ordered and told her he was going to get him some pizza.

* * *

Florence unlocked the Garage and turned on the lights and led Ted over to the case summary file cabinet. Ted reached out and pulled her to him. "Florence, I just want to make sure you understand that last night wasn't a one night stand kind of thing for me. I really hope you want to see where this goes because I could lose myself in you quite easily."

Florence smiled with a tear in her eye and reached up wrapping her arms around his neck. She kissed him and felt his tongue press against her lips and she allowed her lips to part as their tongues began to caress each other.

Ted began to lose his sense of where they were and what they were there to do and he had to force himself to stop and pull back. He smiled as he let out his breath almost explosively. "Sorry, I almost got carried away there." Florence smiled and reached out and caressed his cheek. Ted watched as she opened the file cabinet and he scratched his head as he looked at all the file folders, "This is going to take a while." Florence smiled as she watched him pull up a chair and began digging into the files he started first by separating them based on latest to oldest. Florence watched for a while and once it seemed like Ted's attention was solely on the task she walked over and opened the door that closed off the servers that were trying to find Collins. She stepped over to the keyboard and began typing in commands to reverse the changes she had made to the system. As she executed the last command restoring all the data the system had been gathering but hiding, "Florence?"

Florence nearly jumped off the floor as Ted's voice scared her. "Oh Ted, you scared me."

Ted laughed, "I'm sorry, I'd turned to ask you something and you weren't there. I barely saw you through the tinted glass here. What's this?"

"Oh, sorry, I should have told you. I thought I would come check the server. This is the server that has been searching for Collins." Florence told him.

Ted looked surprised, "Really? Anything we can use?"

Florence shook her head, "Not sure, there is a lot of data here though. Might be something, it's just going to take some time to go through it."

"You think Walter would have a problem if I bring a computer forensic team in here to examine the data? They could probably do it a lot faster, especially faster than I can and with Walter out of commission and Sylvester gone." Ted stepped up to look at the screen.

"We can call and ask," Florence told him.

* * *

Happy had just signed the lease agreement after she finished looking at the online virtual tour and doing some quick research on the area and the property management group. She slid it over to Toby and he just signed it without looking away from the TV. Happy frowned, "Hey Fungus, don't you think you should be paying attention to what we're doing?"

Toby shook his head, "Why? An office is an office to me. You have more specific needs than I do. As long as I got a place for a couch and my stereo I'm good."

"You don't even want to read the contract?" Happy asked incredulously.

Toby stopped to look at her, "Some reason I shouldn't trust you?"

Happy rolled her eyes as she bit her tongue.

* * *

Cabe entered Walter's room and placed the small box on his table along with a bottle of water and moved the table over the bed. "I've got to go pick up Allie, would you like us to come back up and sit with you for a while?" Cabe asked.

Walter shook his head, "Thanks for this. You guys have a good night. See you tomorrow?"

Cabe smiled and nodded and then turned and left. He stepped over to the nurses' station but not seeing Walter's nurse he let the secretary know what he brought him to eat and left.

Walter opened the box and saw two pieces of pizza, heavy with cheese, sausage, ham, banana peppers and mushrooms. He grimaced but lifted a slice up and took a small bite. His lip curled as the taste was almost repulsive to him. He ate four more small bites and then looking around he reached over and grabbed the trashcan by the bed and lifted it up. He pushed the few pieces of paper in it over and threw the rest of the pizza into the bottom and covered it with the paper and set it back down.

A bell dinged on his laptop and he pulled it over and opened it and saw he had a new email. Opening the email program he saw ScorpJr1 and as he smiled tears ran down his face.


	17. Chapter 17

"Dad,

Today was a better day at school. My teacher was so happy that I wasn't as sad as I have been. Some of my classmates even started coming back around me. Do you remember my friend Daniel? He's my friend with autism that got lost that day. He said to tell you Hello and he was sorry that you and Mom have broken up.

How are you doing? I hope you are taking time to take care of yourself and not working too hard to distract yourself and wear yourself down any more than you already are. Anything good going on at Scorpion or anything I could help with? I heard someone torched one of the derelict cars under the overpass the other night not far from the Garage. Did you see it?

I kind of upset Mom because I didn't email my homework to Sly last night and of course he had to go blab to her, so I guess I'll have to keep sending it to both of you. I'm so mad at the guys for leaving you and truthfully I am a little mad at Mom over it too. I mean I get it, she was hurt but I don't understand why she can't work through it with you. I'm still mad at you too, but I'm trying to get over it. I never heard my Mom cry so hard or so much over this. I hear her cry every night after she thinks I've gone to sleep. She moved the recliner you bought for the house into her bedroom; I think she sleeps in it instead of in you guy's bed. I really hate all of this. I hate feeling this way and I want my family back.

Your son,

Ralph"

Walter reclined in his bed just crying at Paige's pain and her sorrow at what he had done and Ralph's pain and anger at him over the whole situation.

Walter struggled to collect himself so he could review the files Ralph sent with his email. His phone began ringing as he called the first one up. He picked it up off the table and saw 'Florence' and he pressed answer. "Hey Florence," he said.

"Walter, Ted wants to know if he can bring in a computer forensics team to go through all this data the server has been collecting on Collins." Florence told him.

Walter became puzzled, "But the server hasn't collected any data on Collins. I'd checked it the other day."

Florence became nervous, "Uh, well that's odd. According to the server there appears to be over a gigabyte of data here on him."

Walter scratched his chin, "That's odd, maybe Cabe's right, maybe I haven't been in my right mind and I either missed it or didn't actually look at the right system."

Florence breathed a sigh of relief, "That might be the case then. Probably more the reason why we should let the forensic team go through the data then?"

Walter ran his hand through his hair, "Yea that sounds like a logical course of action. My judgment must be impaired and we shouldn't rely on it too much right now. I'll talk to you later." Walter hung up as he began to question everything.

* * *

Florence looked at her phone, 'God, what have I done?' She thought to herself. 'Walter was so right about what he said about Collins and I fell for it hook, line and sinker.' She sighed.

"Everything okay Florence?" Ted asked with concern.

Florence smiled, "Yea, it's so weird to hear Walter doubt himself like that. He said the forensics team is a good idea. He said we shouldn't rely on his judgment right now."

Ted looked at her, "That makes no sense, we shouldn't trust his judgment but his judgment is for us to use a forensics team to go through the data?"

Florence smiled; the round robin logic wasn't lost on her either.

* * *

Walter turned his attention back to the work Ralph had sent him and he quickly scanned through it and then returned to look through it again and then again. The thought that he wasn't thinking right had him worried. He didn't want to tell Ralph the truth about what was going on but he didn't want to make a mistake and fail Ralph in some other capacity either. After the fifth time over his work he was fairly confident that his first four times were correct and Ralph's work was flawless like always.

"Dear Ralph,

I am so glad you are doing better and are not as sad so that school is going better and the other kids are returning to normal around you. Of course I remember Daniel, what a day that was huh? Tell him I said Hello and thank you.

I'm doing as well as I can be. Still so busy with a lot of things, Homeland is getting serious about trying to find Collins it's probably best to keep that between us though. I did hear about the car but didn't actually see it. It was put out long before I got up.

Ralph, I need you to do something for me please. Do not be mad at your Mom for this. This isn't her fault; it is completely my fault, my inability to properly analyze social norms effectively and my own fear. So any anger you feel you need to direct it at me. Please continue to be that amazing young man I know you are and love and support your Mom the way she deserves, she loves you so much. I don't want you mad at me but I screwed up and I alone am responsible for this mess between your Mom and me. You have no idea how much it pains me to know how much I have hurt your Mom and how much she is still suffering; she will always be my world.

As for the other guys, I wrongly went off on Sly; if I had approached it differently he might still be here with me instead of wherever he is. Toby and Happy I have no clue what their issue is they didn't say much other then get mad at me and walk out. So while I can't advise you well on them, I guess I have to ask you to give them some consideration out of our friendship in the past.

Your work looks good and I think it is a great idea for you to keep sending it to Sly too just in case there is a day where I am stuck in a case and I can't review it for you okay?

I miss you and your Mom so much. Oh, I found the drawing you made in art class of me pushing you in a tire swing and your Mom watching us. It broke my heart knowing how I screwed this all up but it was really good and it brought me many happy smiles. Did you want me to send it back? I'd be honored to keep it though, it means a lot to me. I noticed that in the windows of the house the house was empty but in one window there was something drawn there but I couldn't quite make out what it was do you mind giving me a hint or telling me? I love you.

Always honored to be your Dad,

Walter"

Walter felt better after getting Ralph's email and he sent his reply as quick as he could not wanting Ralph to even question why it took more than a few minutes for him to respond. Walter's tech nurse came in to get vitals on him. "Good afternoon, I'm Charlie your tech. Do you prefer Mr. O'Brien or another name?" Charlie asked.

"Walter is fine." Walter told him.

Charlie smiled, "Good to meet you Walter, if someone calls wanting to check on how you are, is there a word I can put in your file as long as they know it we can answer their questions?"

"Just my Dad, but he'd probably call my cell phone." Walter told him.

"Okay, well if you need anything just hit the call light and ask for me. If I'm busy someone else will come help you." Charlie told him before turning to leave.

"Charlie, is there a shop of some kind in the hospital?" Walter asked.

"Sure, we got a gift shop down on the main floor. You are on restricted movement, if you want I can call and get a volunteer to come up and take you down in a wheelchair." Charlie answered.

Walter nodded, "I'd appreciate that."

It was perhaps twenty minutes when a young man came in pushing a wheelchair. "Someone call for a taxi? I'm Brad and I'll be your Uber driver for this trip."

Walter half smiled, "Thanks, I just wanted to see what was in the gift shop. Maybe pick something up if I could find my wallet."

"That we can do, let me disable your bed alarm and put the rail down and we'll get you in the chair here. Push your call light please." Brad told him.

Walter hit the light and a moment later "Nurses' station can I help you?"

"Hi, this is Brad from Patient transport could we get Mr. O'Brien's wallet please?"

"Okay," the voice answered.

Walter slowly got out of bed after Brad put the side rail down and got into the chair as Charlie stepped back in and unlocked a small cabinet door on the side of the wall and pulled his wallet out and brought it over to him. "Thanks Charlie," Walter told him.

Walter had Brad push him over to the cosmetics and he began looking through the concealers trying to compare the color patch to the back of his hand. Brad looked at him, "I don't think they really have a good match for you. If you want, my sister is a Mary Kay rep. I could see if she has time to run by to help you."

Walter shook his head, "It wouldn't be very efficient or very cost effective, I just need something to cover these dark circles until I get some more rest."

Brad nodded, "Well this one might be your best bet then but it's still a few shades off though."

Walter considered it, "I think it would be close enough. Thank you."

* * *

Paige watched as Ralph sat there mostly pushing his food around his plate, "Is something wrong baby?"

"Not exactly," Ralph told her.

"Would you rather I fix you something else?" Paige asked reaching out to feel his forehead concerned there could be a fever.

Ralph shook his head, "This is fine, thank you. I guess I'm just not that hungry."

"Did something happen at school you didn't tell me about?" Paige pressed.

Ralph shook his head, "It was Dad's email back to me."

Paige swallowed hard, "Everything is okay isn't it?"

Ralph nodded, "Basically, I told Dad I was a little mad with you over this whole thing. He told me he didn't want me to be mad at you that none of this was your fault. It was entirely his fault for not being able to properly analyze social norms and his own fear. For me to just love and support you the way you deserve. Any anger I have should be directed at him alone."

A tear ran down Paige's face.

"I think what has me bothered the most is about the others, he wants me to remember his friendship with them and to give them consideration for that friendship. And all I want to do is lash out at them." Ralph finished.

* * *

The computer forensics team came into the Garage and began downloading and trying to dissect the data on the server steering clear of all other computer systems at Ted's direction. "Looks like they will be here a while, would you like for me to order a pizza?" Ted asked Florence.

Florence smiled, "You've treated me the last two nights, how about I order the pizza, seems like the least I can do."

Ted smiled and nodded.

* * *

Walter finished applying the concealer to his eyes and tried to blend it as best he could and it didn't look too bad. Felt weird, kind of like sunscreen. He didn't like that either. His nurse came in about 6:30, "Mr. O'Brien, dietary called up and said they haven't received an evening meal order yet. You need to order something now because they close at 7:00 for the night."

Walter sighed, "I suppose you are going to insist?"

She nodded as she watched him pick up the room phone and ordered scrambled eggs, bacon and toast. She smiled and left the room.

Walter looked at the eggs and bacon on his plate and his lip curled in disgust. He tried a bite of the eggs and dropped his fork. He picked up a piece of bacon and the second it touched his tongue his stomach rolled. He sighed and picked up the toast and took a bite and barely was able to swallow it. He looked out the door and reached down and picked up the trashcan and moved the paper inside it again revealing the pizza he had dumped in it earlier. He scrapped his food into the bottom and covered it and returned it to the floor. He closed his eyes and sighed.

* * *

Paige picked up her cell phone while Ralph was taking his shower and called the Garage. She was hoping to just hear Walter's voice answer the phone she didn't want her number coming up on his cell phone. The phone rang twice when she heard it pick up her heart beat increased. "Scorpion, Florence Tipton speaking."

Paige stared at her phone, "Sorry, wrong number." She hung up quickly, and she began to fume. 'That bitch, she isn't getting away with this.' She thought to herself.

Ralph came out of the bathroom and saw his Mom grabbing her coat, "Mom?"

Paige turned; she had forgotten Ralph for a moment. She smiled, "Hey baby, I forgot something I need to do. I won't be gone very long. If your homework is done you can play your game for another hour I should be back before that. Okay?"

Ralph nodded as he went into his bedroom and changed into his pajamas.

Paige drove like Happy and arrived at the Garage in record time as she pulled up in her parking space as she went to open the door she saw the Garage door open and several people wearing Homeland jackets she never saw before came out of the Garage and got into a SUV with federal plates. "What the hell is going on?" She said to herself.

Paige saw the door open again and she saw Agent Markus step out followed by Florence who turned and locked the door, Paige's blood pressure shot up several points as hate filled her heart and then her mouth dropped open as Ted kissed Florence rather passionately pushing her back up against the locked door. They smiled at each other and he put his arm around her as they walked over to her side of the building.

Florence looked around, "What happened to all the gear and extra agents?"

Ted nodded, "Still got the cameras, but I had to scale back the active agents calling in the forensics plus with nothing happening last night Carlson cut my budget a little."

Paige watched as they entered into Florence's side of the building. Paige's eyes closed, "Oh God, what have I done?" She opened her door and got out of her car. She started to walk over to the Garage frowning as she saw the Garage was dark and then she realized Walter's car wasn't there. She sighed and got back in her car, at first she planned to wait for Walter to come back but then remembering Ralph was home alone she went to start her car when a man tapped on her window scaring her.

She rolled her window down about three inches when he held up his Homeland badge. "Can I help you Ma'am?" He asked.

Paige frowned, "No, I use to work here and came over to talk to Walter but his car isn't here so I will come back tomorrow."

The agent nodded, "I need to log all visitors can I have your name and see your ID please?"

"P-Paige Dineen," she told him as she held up her ID.

The agent looked at a clipboard and saw her name on it and nodded. "Okay, have a good night Ma'am."

Paige started her car and drove back home.


	18. Chapter 18

Walter laid there bored and unable to sleep regardless to how tired he felt. His nurse came in about 11 PM, "Still can't sleep? The Dr. prescribed this sleep aid if you want it." She asked.

Walter nodded his head as she sat the pill down with a small cup of water. He took the pill and swallowed it with the water. His nurse smiled and turned out the overhead lights as she left his room.

Walter looked out his window at the skyline of LA. As he had every night since that horrible night he saw images of Paige flash through his mind, occasional images of the three of them together as a family and tears began coursing down his cheeks.

* * *

Just after midnight Collins's powder blue van once again turned onto Happy and Toby's street and like before he turned off the lights as he approached their house and parked just past their driveway. Turning on his equipment his computer quickly connected with the device in Toby's neck and he ran it through a diagnostic before initiating the neuro-connection process. With everything working as he designed he set his watch and went to sleep.

* * *

Walter finally fell asleep a little after 6 AM only to be awaken at 7:30 AM by the Dr making his rounds. "Good morning Mr. O'Brien. I'm Dr Sneed; I'll be looking after you while you are here in the hospital. Everything looks good so far, I see you had pizza and eggs for your afternoon and evening meals, that's great. How'd you sleep?"

Walter started to tell him off but then thought that might actually work against his desire to get of the hospital as soon as possible. "Really well, the sleep aid helped a lot."

The Dr nodded his head, "You certainly look like you had a good rest, the dark circles your other Dr noted have decreased quite a bit."

Walter nodded glad that the Dr was a bit older and apparently didn't noticed the concealer he'd put on to mask the circles. "When do you think I will be able to go home?"

Dr Sneed looked over the chart, "Well I want to be sure you eat well the next couple of days and that you can sleep a solid eight hours without a sleep aid and then we can get you released. How's that sound?"

Walter grimaced internally; he couldn't take this for a couple of more days. "Sounds good to me Dr." Walter lied.

"I'll go enter my orders and then I'll finish my rounds and I'll see you tomorrow morning then Mr. O'Brien." Dr Sneed said.

Walter nodded and watched as he walked out into the hallway. Walter quickly pulled his laptop up and connected to the wireless and hacked the hospital system and setup a trap and waited as soon as Dr Sneed logged into his record on the computer he captured his login info and he waited until he logged back out. Walter watched as Dr Sneed walked past his door and he quickly entered his login info and pulled up his chart and edited what Dr Sneed wrote and ordered his own discharge from the hospital and then he logged out.

Walter laid there waiting and about an hour later Charlie his tech nurse came in, "Good morning Walter, looks like the Dr is pretty happy with you and has ordered your discharge. I just need to get your vitals and then I'll get you your clothes and you can get dressed. Do you need me to call for a cab or anything?"

Walter smiled, "Morning, yes, I'll need a cab."

* * *

Paige dropped Ralph off at school and as she headed for home she decided she was going to drive by and see if Walter was at the Garage. As she pulled up to the corner across the street from the Garage she almost ran the stop sign since the sign was missing. She looked around and saw it bent over on the ground. Clearly someone ran over it. She shook her head, probably a drunk leaving the bar around the corner. She didn't see Walter's car and her heart sank. He must have had an early morning job. She started to turn down the street to drive by the Garage when she saw Florence's door open and she stepped out. When she turned to lock the door Paige quickly turned the other way and left the area.

* * *

Walter slowly got out of the wheelchair and into the back of the cab; he had to do something he was getting weaker from not being able to eat. He almost considered going back in for a moment. The cab pulled up outside of the Garage and he handed the driver forty bucks and told him to keep the change as he got out. He took in a deep breath, it might have smelled but it still was better than being inside the hospital. He stepped up to the door and found it unlocked and he frowned. He opened the door and stepped inside. He slowly moved towards his desk when he saw Florence was taking care of Ferret Bueller. "Morning Florence," he said quietly as he slowly sat down at his desk.

Florence jumped having not heard him until then, "Walter? What are you doing here? Surely they didn't release you already."

Walter smiled and nodded his head as he sat his laptop on his desk and he sat the bag they'd put some items into for him on the corner of his desk.

Florence locked the ferret back in his cage and walked over and looked at his discharge order. She looked up at Walter, "You hacked the hospital computer and ordered your own discharge didn't you?" It wasn't really a question.

Walter smiled, "Why would I do that?"

Florence stared at him, "That isn't an answer, that's an obfuscation!"

"Is there any coffee?" Walter asked.

"Cabe's going to be pissed when he finds out. And I am not going to stand in his way either. You want some damn coffee, make it yourself." She told him.

Walter looked at her, "So you know I was in an accident and I'm sore and hurting, sleep deprived and starving but neither as my friend or employee you won't help me out by making some coffee?"

Florence glared and then huffed as she turned and walked into the kitchen and started the coffee maker.

Walter closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. When he opened them he saw his car back behind Ferret Bueller's cage. He pushed up from the desk and slowly walked back to look at his car. He sighed; clearly it was beyond worth repairing even if they hadn't cut the roof supports and destroyed the door to get him out. He saw his keys in the ignition still and he slowly bent over and reached down over the dash and pulled them out of the car. As he returned to his desk he heard Florence, "So what was so important that you had to get out of the hospital and get back here? Is there a job I don't know about?"

Walter shook his head, "No, but I got to start doing something to turn this company around."

* * *

"Toby, I'm telling you something is really weird at the Garage. Florence is answering the phone system, Homeland agents are in and out of there, Walter's car is not there and as far as I can tell he isn't there." Paige told him as she was driving home.

"Paige, how do you know what is going on at the Garage?" Toby asked.

Paige swallowed hard, "I-I drove by there last night." She finally admitted.

Toby sighed, "Paige, you are going to ruin this moment of transformation if you interact with Walter."

"Damn it Toby, something is seriously wrong over there. I'm going to call Cabe." Paige told him.

"Wait, before you do that, why don't you come over and the three of us can go over everything so we can go to Cabe together." Toby told her.

Paige looked around, "Okay, I'll be over there in about ten minutes I am not far away."

"Great, see you then." Toby told her and hung up.

"See who when?" Happy said as she walked out of the restroom.

Toby smiled, "Oh Paige wanted to get an early start on the office space and she is headed this way. But I could really go for some breakfast. Do you mind going to pick us up something from McDonalds?"

Happy looked at him as he rubbed the back of his neck. "You know, you are really milking that right?"

Toby smiled, "I love you too."

Happy slapped his shoulder and picked up her keys and left.

Paige pulled up outside of their house and turned off her car. She looked around but didn't see Happy's truck. 'Maybe Happy had to go get something,' she thought. She got out and walked up to the door and knocked. Toby answered smiling, "Come on in, Happy will be back in a minute."

Paige felt something was weird but chalked it up to nerves and whatever was going on at the Garage so she walked on in. "Have a seat," Toby told her gesturing to the couch.

Paige sat down and Toby walked by, "Pikachu." Paige fell asleep. Toby sat down in the chair across from her and looked at her as she slept, "Paige, why did you go to the Garage last night?"

"I called just to hear Walter's voice and Florence answered the phone and I got mad." Paige told him.

Toby nodded, "Paige, I want you to forget about hearing Florence on the phone last night, you heard Walter answer and you hung up. You never went over there last night so forget everything you saw at the Garage last night. You never went there this morning; you just dropped Ralph off at school and then came over here so we could all go to the office space. You had nothing else to talk to us about. Okay?"

Paige shook her head at first and then slowly nodded. "Paige, why did you come here," Toby asked her.

"So we could go look at the office space," Paige answered.

"Have you been to the Garage lately?" Toby asked.

Paige shook her head, "Not since that night."

Toby smiled and stepped over to the side of the couch and snapped his fingers, "Wake up."

Paige's eyes opened and she looked around puzzled at first.

"Well to tell you the truth the three of us have already signed the lease agreement but I think you are right an actual tour of the office sounds like a good idea. We could give the lease agreement to the agent if it matches the virtual tour." Toby told her as he walked over and sat down in the chair across from her.

Paige looked at Toby confused, "Wasn't there, wasn't there something else I was talking with you about?"

Toby frowned, "Today? No, just going to check out the office, Happy is grabbing me some breakfast and as soon as we're done we can go. Do you want me to call her and have Happy grab you something too?"

Paige was still so confused she was sure there was something else but she shook her head no.

* * *

Cabe walked into Walter's room, "Good morning Walt," he stopped and looked around. The bed was stripped; the information board had been erased. He looked and saw the bathroom door ajar and he opened the bathroom door and didn't see him in there. He instantly became concerned and walked out to the nurses' station and looked at the receptionist, "Excuse me, Walter O'Brien, where is he?"

The receptionist punched in the name, "Hrmm, Oh, here it is, Dr. Sneed discharged him this morning."

Cabe stared at her, "He what? Walter had no business being discharged." His face darkened as he pulled out his badge, "You get that Dr down here this minute."

Dr Sneed showed up a few minutes later. He asked the receptionist, "What's going on?"

Cabe stepped up, "Are you Dr Sneed?"

"I am, who are you?" Dr Sneed asked.

"Cabe Gallo, Homeland. I want to know why you discharged Walter O'Brien." Cabe asked him gruffly showing him his badge.

"I did no such thing." Dr Sneed told him.

The receptionist cleared her throat, "I'm sorry Dr Sneed. According to the computer you discharged him this morning after you saw him."

"What? I told him I wanted to keep him a couple of days to ensure he was able to sleep without a sleeping aid and to make sure he was still eating." Dr Sneed looked at Cabe.

"Walter, you stubborn son of a, I got the feeling this wasn't your fault Dr. He was awake when you saw him this morning?" Cabe asked.

Dr Sneed nodded.

"He probably hacked the system and copied your login information and then logged in and changed his record issuing his discharge. I should have realized. I'm sorry." Cabe told him. Cabe turned and left the hospital, his anger building each minute.

* * *

Paige pulled up in front of Sylvester's apartment with Toby and Happy in her back seat. Sylvester smiled and got in the front seat and Paige took off after pulling up the office address on her GPS.

* * *

Cabe pulled up out front of the Garage and parked in his parking spot. "Hey Cabe," Ted yelled as he saw him get out of his SUV. "Hey man, how's Walter doing this morning? Whoa, Cabe, what are you so mad about?"

"Walter, he hacked the hospital system and issued a discharge for himself." Cabe fumed.

Ted's eyes widened, "No kidding? Damn, there were a couple of times I wish I could have done that." Ted laughed until he saw Cabe's expression and he smiled, "Cabe, its a little funny."

"Maybe if it was your kid you wouldn't think so." Cabe told him as he grabbed the Garage door and threw it open. "WALTER," he screamed.

* * *

Paige pulled up outside the office and they saw the property agent standing up on the balcony outside the door. She waved as Paige and Sylvester got out of the car. Paige introduced Happy and Toby and they went inside. Sylvester took Toby over and showed him the corner he wanted his desk and pointed out that his couch could go right next to him. Happy looked at the office next to the bay with the overhead door. She examined the circuit breaker box and checked the power load that was listed and nodded and then examined the foundation and walls double checking for stress cracks. The agent was impressed with the thoroughness of her inspection. Happy move through the rest of the office and made sure everything else was up to code.

* * *

"You stubborn, pigheaded jackass," Cabe screamed at Walter. Florence's face paled as she looked from Cabe to Ted.

Walter looked up from his laptop, "Noted, I'm quite busy right now Cabe."

Cabe slammed his fist on top of his desk, "I don't give a damn if you are quite busy right now. Why couldn't you spend a couple of days at the hospital and get better?"

"Because I had to try and find us some new business or Scorpion 2.0 is going to die. That's why. I don't have a business manager anymore, I don't have a backup programmer, I don't have a mechanical engineer, I don't have a behaviorist. I got a chemist and I got me." Walter poked his chest with his thumb. "But I can't even get a foot in the door of the jobs anymore. No one wants me without her." Walter grabbed his laptop and threw it across the Garage and it slammed into the wall behind Sylvester's old desk and they heard it splinter and pieces of plastic went flying.


	19. Chapter 19

Walter and Cabe glared across his desk at each other for several long minutes. Florence watched in apprehension. Ted stepped over to Florence and put his arm around her. Walter could feel his leg muscles beginning to weaken and tremble. He finally sat down kind of slouching back and turned his head to look out the windows along the front of the building.

* * *

Paige's stomach was in knots as she took the lease agreement and signed it and reluctantly handed it to the agent. Something wasn't right but she just couldn't put her finger on it. Sylvester almost jumped up and down he was so happy. The agent smiled and signed the agreement. She took the money order that Toby gave her to cover the first three months rent and gave them their copy of the lease and the rent receipt along with 4 sets of keys before leaving.

"Well I guess we need to go shopping for some desks and stuff," Sylvester told them grinning.

* * *

"The coffee is done," Florence announced.

Walter slowly got up and walked into the kitchen and made a cup of coffee before returning to his desk. He saw Cabe glaring at him the whole time. As he sat back down, "Yes?"

"I'm going to Homeland," Cabe said and he got up and walked outside.

Ted followed after him, "Cabe, hold up." Cabe stopped and waited until Ted joined him outside. "Hey, I was going to tell you before I saw you so upset. Did you know Paige came by last night?"

Cabe frowned and shook his head, "No, I didn't. When did she come by?"

"It was about 8:30 last night. Apparently right around the time the computer forensics team left and Florence and I locked up the Garage." Ted told him.

Cabe looked at Ted, "Maybe she wanted to talk this mess over with Walter." Cabe thought about it with a slight smile on his lips.

* * *

Walter looked at Florence, "Sorry about earlier. Thank you for making the coffee."

Florence nodded, "I'm sorry, it's your life I shouldn't be demanding you live it any particular way. We just care about you Walter. I hope you know that."

Walter nodded, "As soon as I drink this, do you mind taking me to the store? I need to pick up some sleep aids and maybe some of those meal shake things Cabe talked about the other day. He was going to grab some but I think with everything else it slipped his mind."

Florence nodded, "If your going to try and take care of yourself of course I will. If you want I can just go now and get them for you. You can conserve whatever strength you have left."

Walter thought about that as he sipped his coffee. Nodding his head he pulled his wallet out and handed her his personal bank card. "See if you can get the strongest sleep aid that doesn't have an addictive quality please. Not sure what flavor shakes they have, strawberry is preferred but chocolate would be fine too."

Florence took his card and slipped it into her shirt pocket. "I'll be back shortly."

* * *

Paige selected her desk and some chairs for her office, she selected a large conference table and eight chairs to go around it. She looked at the desk and chair Sylvester wanted and she recommended a different chair based on his height and weight. She didn't want it to break or cause him any issues. She looked at the couch Toby wanted and then frowned as she saw the table Happy wanted for her office area. "Don't you want a regular desk Happy?"

Happy shook her head, "I don't need a desk, I need a workbench. This table will do until I either build or find a bench I like."

Paige nodded as they turned towards the kitchen items. Paige saw something move outside the store's front window and as she looked out she saw Florence walking by. Anger rose up inside of her instantly and she turned and moved towards the front door. "Paige?" Happy called after her.

"You guys pick out what you want; I forgot something I need next door." Paige called over her shoulder as she opened the door and left. She saw Florence walk into the drug store next door and she quickly followed after her. She wasn't sure why or what she planned but her anger demanded she follow her. She did her best to stay out of Florence's field of vision. She saw her pick up several packs of chocolate meal replacement shakes." Her phone rang and she stopped and answered it. "Hey Walter, you need me to stop at Michaels arts and crafts? Yea I can swing by there. And the other place is Adams photography studio? Sure, can you text me their address? Alright I'll see you in a little while." She continued to push her cart over to the sleep aids as she began picking up packages and examining the ingredients.

Paige was now dying to know why Walter wanted her to stop by Adams, she remembered they had gone there for their family photo shoot. She saw the allergy meds were right next to where she was so she walked up towards her. "Florence?" She said as innocently as she could.

Florence turned her head and nearly jumped away, "P-P-Paige, how are you?"

Paige turned to look at the allergy meds, "Doing well thanks. How are you?"

"I-I'm well thanks, just picking up some things for Walter." Florence told her not taking her eyes off her.

She was mentally trying to figure out how to ask her about Adams but she already acted like she didn't realize she was in the store. "Oh?" She casually looked at her cart. "Walter wanted meal replacement shakes and sleep aids?"

Florence nodded sadly, "He's having a difficult time getting to sleep and he hasn't really been able to eat."

Paige frowned, "I'm sorry to hear that. It must really be impacting your time together."

Florence shook her head, "There is no together time for us, it's only business. I'm actually in a relationship with a Homeland agent his name is Ted."

'Why does that seem so familiar?' Paige thought. "Oh, I figured you two would start dating since Walter and I broke up."

"Walter never cared for me in that way. I was only ever a friend in his eyes. He only loves you and that won't ever change. And I would never have encouraged him otherwise. If you'll excuse me I need to finish." Florence said with some heat.

Paige stood there with tears in her eyes as she watched Florence leave.

* * *

Walter got up and walked over to Toby's desk and sat down. He began opening the drawers until he found the laptop that Walter had gotten him for his work at Scorpion. He lifted it out and took it back to his desk and walked over and picked up his laptop off the floor and brought it over. He sat down and sighed. He got his tool kit out of his desk and removed the few screws holding what was left of the back on it and removed the hard drive from it. He opened the back of Toby's and pulled the hard drive out and hooked his up to it and turned it on. He was shocked to see it come up. He pulled out his docking station and hooked it to the laptop and then dropped Toby's hard drive in it and he initiated a program to mirror his hard drive to it. He carefully removed the memory from his laptop and put the boards into an anti-static bag and then looked to see if anything else was salvageable but quickly discounted that. He put it into the trash and sat there watching as the laptop continued to mirror his hard drive.

* * *

Cabe had stopped in and briefed Katharine on what was going on with Walter and then asked her if she would call her friends and see if they would employ Walter to try and give him some hope. She quickly became frustrated when she found out that both of them had gotten phone calls regarding Scorpion and what a pain Walter was to work with especially now since Paige was no longer with him. She got up and made her way to Carlson's office. "Director Carlson, Director Cooper is here to see you." Carlson's assistant told him as Katharine stood there waiting. She nodded as she looked up at Katharine, "He'll see you ma'am."

Katharine entered his office closing the door behind her, "What can I do for you Katharine?" Carlson asked with his oily smile.

Katharine resisted the urge to vomit, "I thought I should advise you sir that someone is undermining one of our assets. I'm not sure yet who but I'm going to assign an agent to investigate it."

Carlson leaned back in his chair and stuck his pen into his mouth. "This wouldn't have something to do with Scorpion would it?" He asked.

Katharine nodded.

"You know, I know you've been working with them for a while and I am beginning to think maybe it's time to reassign Scorpion to someone less prominent within Homeland or maybe even time to reconsider our affiliation with them. Now with all that's been going on with them. I'm not sure it's a good fit anymore." Carlson told her.

Katharine looked shocked, "With all Scorpion has done for this agency and country you want to just downgrade or cut Scorpion loose all together?"

Carlson nodded, "I hear there is a new problem solving group forming, they might be a better fit if nothing else."

Katharine's eyes narrowed, "Who might that be?"

"Centipede Partners, they should be opening their doors in a few days." Carlson told her with a smirk.

Katharine bit her tongue, "I hope that before you make a final decision you'll go back and review all of Scorpion's files. Scorpion has been a huge asset."

Carlson nodded, "Most of Scorpion is Centipede Partners." He told her still smirking.

"Are you enjoying this sir?" Katharine asked.

Carlson laughed, "Maybe a little. In any case I don't think it's worth your or any other agent's time to find out what is or isn't going on with Scorpion in the private sector. In fact I am just about ready to pull the plug on this ridiculous investigation that has been going on at their Garage."

"But agent Douglas was assaulted there. Surely we want to find that perpetrator?" Katharine asked.

"Douglas is fine and nothing has happened the last few nights. Markus hasn't found anything to give us any new leads. So we pull back and monitor the situation and see if it warrants anything going forward." Carlson told her. He looked at his watch, "We'll have to cut this short, I got an appointment to keep for now. Have a good day Katharine."

Katharine was seething inside but she remained calm and nodded her head before leaving and going back to her office.

* * *

Paige walked out of the drug store and saw Happy standing outside the business office store. "Get what you needed Waitress?" Happy asked.

Paige shrugged, "I guess."

Happy looked over at Florence getting into her car, "Did it have anything to do with her?"

Paige shook her head no but Happy could tell she was lying, "She was just here getting some things for Walter. Apparently he is having some problems eating and sleeping."

"Uh huh, you know Paige, if you want to go see Walter you can right? None of us can stop you and I certainly wouldn't blame you. I know how much you both love each other." Happy told her.

"But Toby says it will mess up the transformation." Paige told her.

"Paige, only you can decide what is right for you. Would I like to see Walter more normal? Sure, but for you. For his ability to work with normals, sure, but if you can truly be happy with him as he is and you can keep being his liaison then what does it matter?" Happy told her.

Paige looked at her shocked, "Then why are you doing this?"

Happy shrugged, "We told you, we're tired of his dictatorial way of managing things. We want equal say. Having you manage us is a huge bonus. You naturally put people at ease, you know how to help us calm down and deal with people. We'd be stupid not to want you working with us. But as a friend, I can see what you want just go."

Toby stepped out the door and saw Paige as she was squeezing her hands together, "So what are you ladies out here talking about?"

Happy looked at him, "I was just telling Paige if she really wants to forget this venture and go back to Walter."

"What?! No, absolutely not," Toby almost yelled. "Look, I didn't mean for this to become a permanent business. I wanted to use it to help Walter. We could transform his EQ and he would see that there is another way of running Scorpion and then we could all go back. If she goes back now everything will be ruined."

Happy looked at him, "I don't remember agreeing that we would go back to Scorpion and I know Sylvester doesn't want to go back. That's two against one."

Toby looked at Paige, "Well, what do you want to do Paige?"

Paige stood there looking back and forth from Happy to Toby; tears ran down her face, "I really want Walter healthy."

Toby smiled and stepped over and hugged her with one arm, "Good, that's what we're going to do, get Walter healthy first and then we can decide if we want to merge back into Scorpion, deal?"

Happy shrugged, "I think you are making a mistake Paige but if that's what you want."

Paige nodded but she wasn't sure why she was agreeing.

* * *

Cabe got a text from Katharine, "Meet me at my SUV in the parking garage." He looked around and got up from his desk and made his way out to the parking garage. He walked up to her SUV and the door opened and he climbed inside and as he shut the door she hit a button initiating sonic protocols. She proceeded to tell him everything that happened in Carlson's office.

Cabe was fuming but they both knew there wasn't much they could do about it for now. He thanked her for the information. Cabe walked over to his SUV and pulled out his phone and called Ted. "Hey Cabe, what's up?" Ted answered the phone.

"We need to talk, privately. Meet me at Hollenbeck Park." Cabe told him.

Ted was puzzled, "Okay man, I can be there in twenty minutes."

Cabe hung up and got in his SUV and left the Garage.

Cabe parked his SUV and got out and looked around. The park had a number of visitors but all of them looked civilian. He stood waiting for about five minutes when Ted pulled up and got out of his SUV. He walked over and leaned back against Cabe's SUV next to him. "I just talked with Katharine. Apparently Carlson is indeed sabotaging Scorpion in the private sector and he's going to be ending your investigation into what is going on at the Garage." Cabe told him quietly.

"Are you kidding me? That miserable SOB, do you know when?" Ted asked.

Cabe shook his head, "Not really but she said he made it sound like he was going to do it soon."


	20. Chapter 20

Ted picked up a rock and hurled it as hard as he could across the lake they were parked by. He wanted to scream, he wanted to cuss like the sailor he was, he wanted to throttle Carlson. "Our man was attacked, almost died not to mention we still don't have a clue for sure about what is going on outside of Scorpion or who is involved but that SOB is going to stop us from investigating. I knew he was a slimy no good sack of garbage but this takes the cake."

Cabe nodded his head, he felt the same way. How many times did his team go back into a hot spot to rescue a Marine that had got caught or retrieve a Marine's body? The thought of letting whoever did this get away with it boiled his blood.

"I swear Cabe, if we don't have the guilty party before he cancels this detail I am quitting and going after them as a civilian." Ted fumed.

"Let's go over to my place for a few." Cabe told him. Ted slowly nodded his head and they got into their separate SUVs and Ted followed him home.

* * *

Paige dropped the trio back at Happy and Toby's and left for home. As she drove she remembered Florence's conversation with Walter and needing her to stop by Adam's, her curiosity got the better of her and she drove over hoping that Florence had gone to Michael's first but then she wondered what he could have possibly wanted from there. Walter was not artistic and he didn't place much value in art. She pulled into the little strip mall looking around but not seeing Florence's car she parked a few doors down from Adam's and watched. She was there a few minutes when she saw Florence pull in and park. Her stomach had butterflies as she watched her walk in. She watched as Florence spoke with the woman inside and the woman disappeared for a few minutes and came back with a large framed picture. Paige sat upright trying to see through the darkened glass to catch a glimpse of what the picture was but to no avail.

Paige saw Florence look at it and nodded her head and handed her something. The woman turned and Paige realized she was running a credit card through a machine. She watched as Florence put the card and receipt into her shirt pocket and then carefully pick up the picture and walk out the door. Paige swore as the picture was facing away from her. She watched and as Florence opened the back of her car and she turned the picture and Paige got a momentary glimpse of the picture it was of Walter looking back at her. Paige's hand came up to her mouth as tears ran down her face. She couldn't place the image in her memory from the photo shoot.

* * *

Cabe led Ted down into his basement, Ted noticed the basement had been sound proofed and then he saw Cabe had a target range built in the basement. Cabe walked over and picked up a picture of Carlson and put it on the target board and he grabbed the pull cord and ran the target to the far end of the basement. Cabe turned and gestured at the firing box with a grin on his face.

Ted's grin was as big, "Hell yea." Ted stepped up and pulled out his P2000 and took aim.

* * *

Paige sat there for several minutes after watching Florence leave. She had an almost overwhelming desire to go straight over to the Garage and run in and jump into Walter's arms. But she kept hearing "Manipulation" over and over in her mind. She sighed and started her car and left for home.

* * *

Toby looked at Happy and Sylvester asleep on the couch, "Now remember, we do not encourage Paige to go to Walter, we try and stress that she has to stay away from him. Sly, if Paige brings up Walter, what do you do?"

"I change the subject or I bring up how much he's hurt all of us." Sylvester answered.

"Good, Happy, if Paige wants to contact Walter, what do you do?" Toby asked.

"I remind her how Walter lied to her." Happy told him.

Toby smiled and snapped his fingers, "Wake up."

Sylvester and Happy both woke up feeling a little confused at first, "So Sly, did you want to call and set up phone service for the new office?"

Sylvester nodded his head, "I can do that."

"I'm going to call the power company, Happy you want to call gas and water?" Toby asked.

* * *

Walter removed the hard drive from the dock and put them both up in his desk drawer. He pulled up his web browser and clicked the link to the tech pages and began surfing through the contract jobs. He found three right off the bat and he filled out the forms detailing his experience and listing his qualifications and references. Two of them would begin interviews the following week and the third was for the week after.

He recalled Florence telling him that there was over a gigabyte of data on the server searching for Collins so he logged in and saw where the forensics team had really scoured the hard drive. The drive access data was a mess and he wasn't sure what really belonged where. He did find the data file and he copied it over to his laptop and opened the file and started going through it. But he found he was having a hard time concentrating.

Florence entered the Garage carrying the meal replacement shakes and put them in the fridge and then walked over to Walter's desk and put the sleeping aid, bank card and receipts down. Walter looked up and smiled at her, "Thank you."

Florence smiled and just nodded and then she walked back out to her car. She walked back in with both framed pictures. She looked at Walter, "Where would you like me to put these?" She asked.

Walter looked up and saw the pictures and tears instantly filled his eyes. He slowly stood and walked over and took the portrait and he stared at it, Ralph sitting there at the bottom looking up, Walter's right hand resting on his shoulder and his eyes fully staring into Paige's eyes, his left hand holding her right and her left hand resting on Ralph's other shoulder. Walter looked up at the loft; he knew he didn't have the strength to get up there safely. "Would you put them on my couch please?"

Florence nodded and took the portrait back and turned to walk up the ramp.

Walter looked into the kitchen and walked over and opened the fridge. He grabbed the fermented fish dinner and walked over and put it in the microwave and turned it on. It shut off after ninety seconds and Walter pulled it out. He found it still a bit cold so he put it in for another minute. Florence turned to come down the stairs when she smelled the fish and she just shook her head as she walked on down. Walter opened a pack of the shakes and set a couple out by themselves so they would chill quicker. He grabbed a bottle of water as he heard the microwave ding again. He closed the door and got dizzy as he turned and had to grab the top of the fridge for a moment. His head quit spinning and he slowly reached out and put the water on the table and putting his hand on it he shifted his weight from the fridge to the table and took a couple of steps and he had to stop and sit down.

Florence stepped in the kitchen and seeing Walter sitting there with his eyes closed but the fish wasn't in front of him she walked over and opened the microwave and got the dinner out and feeling the box she knew it was hot so she sat it down in front of him and then got him a fork. Walter opened his eyes and gave her a little smile and picked up the fork and forced himself to eat even though the reheated fish was less than desirable and his stomach rebelled. He knew he had to do something.

* * *

Cabe and Ted were busy laughing; they'd gone through three boxes of ammo and decimated all of Cabe's pictures of Carlson but they felt better. Ted shook his head, "Damn, that was fun. But seriously Cabe, what's our next play?"

Cabe just looked at him, "Not sure, without a lead it's hard to say. If Walter was one hundred percent I am sure he'd have an idea. I guess check in with forensics and see if they have anything before Carlson gets his hooks in them as well." Ted pointed at Cabe and pulled his phone out.

* * *

Florence watched as Walter managed to eat a little over half of the fish dinner before he finally pushed it away. Walter looked up at Florence and smiled, "Thank you for everything."

Florence nodded, "It was the least I could do."

Walter slowly stood and picking up his water walked over to his desk and sat down. He looked at the sleeping aid and read the directions but he was having a hard time concentrating on it. He looked up and saw Florence cleaning up his plate, "Florence, this isn't making sense, how many of these am I suppose to take?"

Florence looked up, "No more than two a night and no more than seven nights without talking to your Dr."

Walter nodded and he opened the package and pulled the bottle out but he had trouble getting the bottle to open. He sighed, "Florence, I'm sorry. Do you mind opening this for me please?"

Florence smiled and walked up and took the bottle and got the cap off and removed the safety seal and gave him the bottle. Walter pulled out two pills and swallowed them. Florence went back into the kitchen and Walter took out two more pills and took them as well. "Florence, I don't think I trust myself to go up to my bedroom so I think I am going to try and lay down in the RV and see if I can't go to sleep," Walter said as he pushed back from his desk.

Florence walked out of the kitchen, "Okay Walter, is there anything else you want me to do while you sleep?"

Walter shook his head, "I'll see you tomorrow."

Florence watched as Walter entered the Airstream and she continued to watch until she saw it move as he lay down in the back. She walked over to the door and turned off the lights that were on and then exited the Garage and locked the door and went over to her lab.

* * *

Ted was disappointed the computer forensics team had nothing yet. The data didn't really make sense to them but they weren't giving up yet. Ted and Cabe left Cabe's house and Cabe headed back to Homeland, Ted had another thought.

* * *

Paige was pacing about her home she'd felt off the whole day starting with going over to Happy and Toby's. She was sure there was another reason she went over there but she wasn't even sure when she thought of going over there especially since she couldn't remember thinking about the office space at least not until Toby had said something after she sat down on their couch. She couldn't put her finger on it and there were a few things during the day that she felt like she already knew or had heard it before like Florence being in a relationship with that agent Markus. She was sure she knew that but she was unable to figure out where she knew it from. And like thinking about Walter's actions being manipulations, she wasn't even trying to think that but it just kept coming up. She remembered that day when the group was over and Toby told them they'd have to remind themselves of the things Walter had done or even make things up and she had on other things but why was she thinking manipulation?

She was so lost in thought she jumped as she heard a knock on the door. Paige frowned and walked over and looked out and saw agent Markus. She swallowed hard and opened the door a few inches. "Ms. Dineen, I don't know if you remember me or not, I'm agent Ted Markus Homeland." Ted reminded her.

"I remember agent Markus," she all but glared.

Ted smiled, "I don't blame you for being apprehensive but I am not here to upset you. May I come in for a minute please?"

Paige slowly opened the door and Ted stepped in and she closed the door. "I hope Cabe gave you my message after my previous visit here."

She nodded. "He said you guys were actually friends."

Ted nodded, "May I ask you some questions?" Paige gestured to the couch, "Can I ask you about this company you are starting, Centipede Partners? Whose idea was it?" Ted asked as Paige sat down on the other end of the couch.

"Well I think it was Toby's, he's certainly been the one leading the way for it." Paige told him.

Ted nodded, "Is there any reasons that Toby would be working with or on behalf of Carlson, head of Homeland?"

Paige frowned and shook her head. "Carlson hates us for some reason. I can't imagine he would ever work with us."

"I'd prefer this not to go beyond us but I have it on pretty good authority that Carlson is making sure that Scorpion is being blacklisted in the private sector and rumor has it that he might approach your company to take Scorpion's place in the future with Homeland." Ted asked her watching her facial muscles.

"What the hell? Why would he actively do that?" Paige became upset.

Ted shook his head, "Not sure. I know he has a problem with Cabe and as I understand it with Walter. So I don't know if it is a simple matter of trying to exact some kind of revenge or what. He's also been talking about ending my investigation into the attack on agent Douglas without us even finding out who did it. So as you can see I have got so many questions and very few answers.

Ralph came in the door. Ralph looked at Paige and Ted on the couch, "Mom?" Ralph experienced anger thinking that his Mom might be experimenting with dating.

Ted looked, "Oh, who's this fine looking young man?" Ralph kind of glared at him.

"This is my son Ralph, Ralph this is agent Markus, he works with Cabe." Paige introduced them. Ralph relaxed a little at that.

"Please, call me Ted." Ted told her and he reached out and shook Ralph's hand. "Well I think that's all the questions I have right now. But if you hear anything would you give me a call please?" Ted handed her his business card.

"Is this about the derelict car that was torched over by Dad's?" Ralph asked.

Paige looked at Ralph, "What?"

"The other night one of the derelict cars was torched. It was on the news the other day." Ralph told her.

Ted smiled, "Not exactly but indirectly yes. There's been a few shenanigans going on over in the area we've been trying to figure out. Okay, well thanks for talking with me Ms. Dineen."

Paige got up and let him out the door.

Paige shook her head, "How was school baby?"

Ralph nodded, "It was good. I just got the one paper from Caltech to write tonight. How was your day?"

Paige smiled, "A little weird to be honest, but we settled on an office to lease so we can start our business." She saw Ralph frown, "You going to be okay with this Ralpy?"

Ralph shrugged, "I just don't understand it Mom. It seems like a mistake to me. Not to mention how it will affect Scorpion's future. You know Dad and Scorpion had problems with jobs before you started working there. Dad unfortunately always rubbed people the wrong way, without you how is he going to make a living?"

"I don't know baby, those are good points and a great question. Though Toby said today it was his plan that as soon as his EQ normalizes he wants us all to go back to Scorpion." Paige told him.

Ralph rolled his eyes.


	21. Chapter 21

"When I first came in I thought you were considering dating again." Ralph told his Mom.

Paige looked shocked, "No, oh Lord no baby. You don't have to worry about that, there is no way I would even think of dating someone else. At least not anytime soon if at all, Ted is actually dating Florence.

Ralph nodded and he hugged his Mom before going into his room to write his paper. Ralph booted up his laptop and he pulled up his email program.

"Good afternoon Dad,

I'm glad you liked my drawing. It was my first real attempt to be artistic. I had meant to give it to you but you guys had to go over seas for that last mission and I didn't get the chance to. I'm glad you found it. I had actually run out of time to finish it, that's why the teacher said she gave me a B+ on it. What you see in the window is suppose to be a baby's crib. Mom was supposed to be holding my sibling you and Mom would have had. Mom didn't get to see it, so maybe you could take a picture of it and send it to me and I can show it to her?

There was a Homeland agent named Ted Markus here when I got home from school. At first I was angry because I thought Mom was dating already. But she said he was dating Florence and he said he was here asking questions about some things happening around the Garage like that car that was torched. Do you know what is going on and why Homeland would be involved in it?

I just have one paper to write for Caltech today but I wanted to write you first so I will send it later after it's finished.

I hope you are well; I really miss you and being able to work on all our projects together. I've not really been in the mood to work on anything since I can't work with you on them. I do miss my telescope though. I was so mad when this all happened, I actually broke it. Mom was really mad at me for it. I deserved her being mad at me for it, it was a stupid thing to do but I was so frustrated and couldn't figure out how to express myself any other way. I hope you aren't too disappointed in me for that.

I better get on my paper.

Love you Dad,

Ralph"

Ralph sent the email and then pulled up his word processor and began working on his paper.

Paige opened the fridge and looked at what she had inside and what might sound good for dinner. She saw the strip steaks she had bought and she had some bell peppers and tomatoes, avocado. She walked over and checked her spices. She saw she had soft tortillas and decided she'd make steak fajitas for dinner.

* * *

Walter laid there for almost a half hour mentally replaying some of his favorite memories of Paige. The main one being when he'd asked her to dance with him at the wedding. He fell asleep with tears and a smile on his face.

* * *

"Oh Cabe, can he legally do that?" Allie asked as they were headed to the Garage.

Cabe nodded, "As long as there isn't any proof that he is doing it. And as Director he can decide who works with Homeland but I still don't know why he would be interested in bringing in Centipede Partners, unless it is solely to torture Walter when he finds out about them."

"Wait, Walter doesn't know about the guys starting their own company? You didn't tell him?" Allie asked shocked.

"He's been having such a hard time Allie; I couldn't bring myself to tell him in case it pushes him over the edge entirely. Did I tell you he logged into the hospital computer and issued his own discharge? He's back at the Garage right now." Cabe told her.

Allie just stared at him for several minutes, "Are you serious? Wait, that's why we're headed this way?"

Cabe nodded, "We got into it pretty good. He's so worried about Scorpion as a business, Lord knows why. Everything about it he loved is gone. It's just a fragment of itself in his memory anymore. He'd probably be better off closing the doors and going to work for some other company."

"Oh Cabe, you know why. He's holding out that Paige will come back and of course bring Ralph back with her." Allie told him.

Cabe looked at her and gave her a small smile, "You are probably right. Did you want to stop at that place you like so much to get dinner for all of us?"

Allie wrapped her arm around his and leaned up against his shoulder, "That's fine with me."

As they got out of Cabe's SUV they saw Ted and Florence come out of her side of the Garage. "Have a good dinner guys," Cabe called out.

Ted smiled as he waved but Florence hurried back towards them, "Cabe, wait." Cabe stopped as he inserted his key into the door. "Be careful, Walter went into the Airstream to try and get some sleep." Florence told him when she got close enough so she didn't have to yell.

Cabe looked to the windows and saw how dark it was inside but then that didn't mean anything, how many times did he go in and see Walter just sitting in the dark? "Thank you Florence, I'll go in quietly and see if he is up. If not we'll head home."

Florence and Ted waited with Allie while Cabe went into the Garage. Cabe came back out about five minutes later with a tear in his eye. "He's sound asleep." Allie smiled and stepped up and hugged him.

"He managed to eat a little over half of that fish dinner that was in the fridge earlier. He also had me get him some of those meal replacement shakes for him today." Florence told them.

"Damn, I forgot about those after the accident." Cabe berated himself.

Allie kissed his cheek, "Why don't you go put his dinner in the fridge and we can go home and eat." Cabe smiled and nodded as he took the bag and quietly reentered the Garage.

Ted and Florence said goodnight after Cabe came back out and locked the door.

* * *

Paige looked at Ralph as he just sat there barely touching his food, "Baby, what's wrong?"

Ralph looked up, "I haven't heard back from Dad yet."

"Oh, well a case could be running long and he hasn't gotten back to the Garage yet." Paige told him.

"I suppose. It's just that I made a drawing for art class a week before that last mission you guys went on and I left it there. He found it and I had asked him to send me a picture so I could show it to you." Ralph told her.

Paige was stunned, "Really?" She'd been trying to get Ralph interested in Art for years. It was perhaps the only class besides gym he got less than an A in, more like less than a C in. Paige was really tickled at the news.

Ralph nodded, "My teacher really liked it. I ran out of time so she had to knock it down a grade because it wasn't finished. She still gave me a B+."

Paige jumped up from her chair and threw her arms around him, "Ralphy, that's amazing. I am so proud of you." She kissed his cheek and turned to sit down.

Ralph smiled, "Thank you."

* * *

Just past midnight Collins turned his powder blue van onto Happy and Toby's street and quietly turned his lights off and parked on the other side of their driveway and he smiled evilly as he got up and entered the back. He turned on his system, "Well Tobias this is the last of our nightly sessions. I trust everything has been fine for you. Of course if it hasn't that's too bad." He laughed as he watched as the computer connected to the device. "Have you been able to keep your friends under control? How many times have you had to refresh your hypnotic control over them?" He watched as the neuro connections began to increase. "I'm going to go out on the limb and bet it is the waitress who has been the hardest to control. All those messy emotions constantly warring against that control, if everything goes well, the look on Walter's face as she watches him hauled off for your murder will be priceless. That'll teach him to reject me." Collins reached down and set his alarm and then curled up on the floor of the van and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Walter was standing by a priest, he felt weird as he never had much to do with religious people. They made no sense to him, almost like how love beyond familial love never made sense. At least until he saw her smile, Paige brought love alive to him. He saw his family and neighbors sitting in the pews of his village's small church. Cabe was standing just behind him, "Cabe? What's going on?"

Cabe smiled, "What's going on? You okay son?"

Just then the organist began playing the wedding march and everyone stood up. Walter's mouth went dry as he saw Ralph walk around a corner leading his Mom up the aisle towards him. She wore a beautiful white lace dress that plunged down between her breasts and the bottom hem barely reached mid thigh. Her garter band playfully peeking out as she walked down the aisle, wearing those white stilettos Paige almost looked a couple inches taller than he was. Walter tried but he couldn't blink, he couldn't take his eyes off her, he couldn't swallow and he felt like his heart was about to beat out of his chest it was thumping so hard and fast. Cabe leaned in, "Steady son."

Paige stepped up next to Walter and Ralph reached out and shook his hand. Paige smiled and reached up and pushed his lower jaw up closing his mouth and then took his hands as the Priest intoned, "Dearly beloved,"

The doors to the church burst opened and everyone turned as they heard "Stop the wedding! Paige doesn't love him, she loves me and I love her!"

Walter looked back and saw Tim running towards them as everyone gasped. Walter half turned and reached into Cabe's jacket and before Cabe could stop him he drew out his gun and turned and fired it striking Tim in the middle of his forehead killing him.

* * *

Walter bolted upright in bed, sweat soaking him as he tried to figure out what had happened. He then realized that it wasn't just sweat that was soaking him. He sighed as he realized he was alone in the Airstream and the fleeting few minutes of happiness of the dream was just a dream. He looked and saw it was five AM. He realized he had slept a little more than fourteen hours and despite the depression of being alone he at least physically felt a little better. He got up and stripped the bed and walked out into the Garage. He dropped the bedclothes by his desk and walked over to the door and turned the lights in the kitchen on and walked back over and picked up the clothes and walked just past the kitchen to the washer and dryer and started the washer and put the bedclothes in it. Since he was alone he stripped and threw his clothes in as well. He carefully made his way quickly upstairs and took a shower and got dressed.

He went back downstairs and got some cleaner and rags out of the kitchen and went back into the Airstream and cleaned the mattress. He was glad it had a protective sheet covering it. He threw the rags into the hamper next to the washer and put the cleaner up and cleaned the coffee maker and started a pot of coffee. He opened the fridge and saw the two dinners and realized that Cabe must have stopped by last night. He grabbed a shake and rinsed the top and opened it after shaking it. It wasn't too much like a shake and the taste while okay it clearly lacked something. But at least his stomach didn't rebel and he was able to drink the whole thing.

He walked over to Happy's area and found a hammer and a couple of nails and went back upstairs. He picked up the portrait and drawing and walked into the bedroom and studied the room and finally picked two spots and put in nails and hung the pictures and then he sat down in his bed and looked at them. Satisfied he stood up and walked back downstairs. After pouring a coffee he walked over to his desk and turned on his laptop as he sat down. He saw he had two emails and panic hit him as he realized that he missed Ralph's email.

He opened the first email and read it and he began crying reading how he had hoped to have had a sibling and now Walter had ruined that. He continued to read and he grew tickled reading how he got upset thinking his Mom was dating. He finished the email when he heard the washer shut off. Walter walked over and put the clothes into the dryer and started it. He refilled his coffee and walked upstairs and into his bedroom. He turned the light on and stepped up to the drawing and using his phone he snapped several pictures and then he returned to his desk. And hooked his phone up to his laptop and looked at the pictures he took and selected the best one and copied it to his laptop. He clicked reply to the email and attached the picture and then he started typing.

"Good morning Ralph,

Sorry I wasn't able to respond last night. I've attached a picture of your drawing; you can see that I loved it so much I had it framed. It made me cry when I read that you had hoped to have had a sibling. It really broke my heart to know how much I have let you down. I really love you and your Mom so much.

I'm doing well, I got some good sleep last night but I am still so busy. I just put in for three more jobs. I know I had talked about cutting back to work with Homeland more but the jobs are simple programming jobs I can do in my sleep but they still have a decent payday.

I'm not one hundred percent sure what is going on around here. I know that Homeland was pretty upset when their agent was assaulted a number of nights ago so that is probably why they are involved in it. So far they haven't asked me to get involved with it though. I guess they want to make sure if it is a credible threat first.

One day Ralph your Mom is going to heal over the pain I caused and she will meet another guy and begin dating again. So while that isn't something you want to hear right now you need to prepare your heart for it. As time goes by it will get easier for you as well. This is the bed I made and I just have to accept it. Do your best to support her.

I really miss you both so much. I've put all of our experiments on hold since you aren't here. I'm sorry about your telescope; I actually destroyed my tablet and laptop because of my frustrations so I get that. Your Mom had a right to be mad at you over it. But if it hadn't been for me screwing up you never would have done that. I will never be disappointed in you Ralph. You keep doing your best and I will always support you no matter what. I haven't read your paper yet I wanted to reply to this first and I will read it shortly and let you know.

I love you and I am so proud you call me Dad,

Walter"

After he sent the email he logged into his Amazon account and did a search on telescopes. He found the one that he replaced the one Paige busted the window with to save him on the subway train. He ordered it for same day delivery and entered his bank card info. He wasn't too sure how Paige would respond so he sent it anonymously.


	22. Chapter 22

Ralph woke up and immediately pulled his laptop over and checked and found Walter had sent back two emails and he smiled, he frowned when he saw the one back from Sylvester and he clicked the check box on it and hit delete. The first one from Walter had an attachment so he opened the second one first and Walter had complimented him on his paper. He smiled and closed it and opened the first one. He was happy with the email until he read the part about his Mom would one day find someone else and Walter wanting him to support her when that happened.

He opened the attachment and saw his drawing was hanging in Walter's bedroom and the really nice frame he had it placed in. He was touched that Walter had loved it that much. He got out of bed and carried his laptop out into the hallway where he heard his Mom in the kitchen. As he walked around the corner towards the kitchen she looked up and smiled, "Good morning sleepy head."

Ralph smiled back as he sat his laptop on the counter, "Good morning Mom. Dad emailed me back. He took a picture of my drawing if you want to see it."

Paige smiled, "Of course I want to see it." She stepped over wiping her hands on a dishrag. She looked down and the scene tugged at her heart. She reached out with her fingers and ran them down over the figures of Ralph and Walter at the tire swing, a tear ran down her cheek as she looked at herself watching. Her brow arched as she noted her arm positions and she clicked on the image causing it to zoom in and she noticed the same object in the one window. "Ralphy, am I seeing this right? Were you, were you hoping that," she took a deep breath, "Walter and I would have a child together?"

Ralph bowed his head and nodded.

Another tear ran down her cheek and they heard a knock on their door. Ralph quickly ran over and looked out and saw what looked like a delivery woman. Ralph called out, "Can I help you?"

"Package for Ralph Dineen," the woman answered. Ralph smiled and opened the door as Paige walked over.

The woman smiled at Ralph still in his PJs, "Are you Ralph?" He nodded as he saw the narrow but tall box marked 'Handle with Care, Fragile'. "I need a signature," she told him. She smiled at Paige.

Ralph quickly signed, as Paige looked at the package. "I'm sorry, who's this from?" Paige asked.

The woman took back her clipboard and looked at it. "I'm sorry, it just says anonymous. Here you go." She passed the box carefully to Ralph, "Have a great Saturday!"

Ralph carried it into the front room as Paige closed and locked the door and she followed behind him. Ralph stepped quickly into the kitchen and got the scissors out of the utility drawer and walked back and carefully cut the binding tape and opened the box and found another box packed inside. As he pulled it out they saw it was a new telescope. Ralph's eyes lit up in joy as a tear ran down his face. He turned and hugged his Mom tightly, "Thank you Mom!"

Paige shook her head, "This isn't from me baby. Who could have sent it? Is there a card or anything inside?"

Ralph carefully removed the inner box, "It's identical to my old one." He exclaimed and then he looked through all the packing materials but found nothing besides a packing list with anonymous printed on it. He shook his head. "Sorry Mom; just says anonymous on it."

It was extremely extravagant but she thought it had to have been Cabe since he had seen the busted one when he was over that day. "Why don't you go get your shower while I finish breakfast Ralph?" Ralph nodded and ran into the bathroom.

Paige picked up her cell phone and pulled up Cabe's contact and hit dial. "Good morning Paige," Cabe answered his phone.

Paige smiled, "Good morning Cabe. Hey, we just got a package delivered here. It says from anonymous on it but it has a new telescope in it. That was very thoughtful of you but you really shouldn't have. It's a really expensive model."

Cabe was silent for a moment, "Kid, I'd like to be able to take the credit for it but it wasn't me."

Paige was shocked for a moment, "Are you sure? You're the only one I know that knew his old one was busted."

Cabe chuckled, "Yea, if I had spent that kind of money on a gift I would remember that."

Paige laughed, "You're right, sorry." She looked towards the kitchen and saw Ralph's laptop and she had a sneaky suspicion. "Thanks Cabe, sorry to disturb you, I'll talk to you later."

Cabe laughed, "No problem and you never disturb me."

They both hung up as Paige walked into the kitchen and looked at Ralph's laptop. She looked in the direction of the bathroom, "Oh Ralphy, please tell me you didn't do something wrong." She closed the program displaying the drawing and saw Walter's email was still opened. She didn't want to but she was so tempted to see what Walter had been saying. She sat down on the kitchen stool and read the email. Her heart broke as she read Walter's words. She smiled with tears as she read how he was trying to love and support them both even though she had walked out on him. Her eyes opened wide as she read about what he had to say about the telescope and then she looked into the front room at the new telescope and she heard Toby, "Manipulation".

* * *

"Agent Markus," Ted answered his phone.

"Agent Markus, This is Mrs. Simms, you spoke with me a few days ago about an oil spot by my house."

Ted had been kicked back on his couch and he quickly sat up. "Of course Mrs. Simms, has something happened?" He grabbed his remote and muted the music playing on his TV.

"Well I should have called before now but I've been busy so sorry I hadn't. My husband has cleaned that spot off three times now; he's currently out there cleaning it for the fourth time. He had adjusted one of our security cameras last night and it shows a van pull up a little after midnight and parked and then a little before five it starts up and leaves." She told Ted.

Ted smiled, "That's okay Mrs. Simms. If I come over now can I get a copy of your video footage?"

"Of course, we'll be home most of the day." She told him.

"Thank you Mrs. Simms I'll see you in about forty minutes." Ted hung up and quickly moved into his bedroom and got dressed.

* * *

Florence quietly entered the Garage, she looked around and saw the kitchen lights on and she cautiously walked over towards Walter's desk and looked into the kitchen. She didn't see him but just then the door of the Airstream opened and he stepped out. "Morning Walter, did you have a good night?"

Walter smiled, "Pretty decent I actually slept fourteen hours, how about you?"

Florence smiled, "It was a nice evening, Ted and I went out for dinner."

Walter smiled as he walked into the kitchen.

* * *

Ted watched the video playback of the van pulling up and parking and then they fast forward and watched it start up. He hit pause and got in close to the screen. There was a slight light glare on the person's face so he was probably wearing glasses. The video unfortunately was black and white. "And you guys don't recognize the van?" The Simms both shook their heads. Ted copied the video over to a USB drive he brought with him. "Thank you both, I'll take this to our forensics lab."

"Umm, you don't think we're in any danger do you?" Mr. Simms asked.

Ted shook his head, "If it's who I think it is he's interested in your neighbors."

Ted walked back out to his car and he pulled out his phone and called Cabe. "Hey Ted, what are you up to on your day off?" Cabe answered.

Ted laughed, "Day off? What's that? No, I got some surveillance video I am taking back to HQ to see if they can enhance it. If I'm right it'll show that Collins has been visiting Toby and Happy."

"No kidding? Well if that doesn't beat all. Keep me up to date Ted." Cabe told him.

Allie looked up from the flower bed, "What's going on?"

Cabe put his phone away and pulled his work glove back on. "Ted said he's got some surveillance video that might show Collins has been visiting Toby and Happy."

Allie stared at him, "Isn't he the lunatic that set you up as a co-conspirator in setting him free?"

Cabe nodded as he dug up some more weeds.

"Why on Earth would they be having any dealings with him?" Allie asked.

Cabe shook his head, "No clue to be honest. Considering how he tried to kill Toby I can't understand why they would be working with him. Of course this is all speculation it might not show him at all."

* * *

Ted watched as the forensic tech uploaded the video and began making adjustments, "The camera system they use is pretty good. The software should be able to manipulate it easily. I can tell you right off the bat this van is a blue, a lighter shade of blue. We'll see if it can get closer." He stopped the video and backed it up just a tad and then paused the video. He looked closely and then highlighted the driver's window and blew it up. He slowly advanced the video frame by frame and stopped. They saw a clear shot of the man's face.

"Collins, you son of a, I knew it. He is back in the states and he is doing something with Happy and Toby." Ted said. "Give me a print out of that and see if you can't get a shot of the license plate. It's a long shot the tags will lead us anywhere but it's worth checking out anyway.

The tech nodded and hit a couple of keys and they heard the printer kick on and a second later it finished printing the image of Collins. The tech backed the video up until the van first came into view and he stopped and advanced it frame by frame until he got the best shot of the tag and it gave them Utah plates 'B73 7GH'. Ted wrote it down while the tech ran it through the system. The plates came back as stolen off a VW Bus.

Ted pulled out his phone and called Cabe, "Hey Ted, did you get a hit off that video?"

"Cabe, it is Collins, got a perfect image from the video of him." Ted him. "I'm going over to talk to Toby and Happy. You want to go with me since they are friends of yours?"

"You bet I do, I'll meet you over there." Cabe told him.

Cabe got up and kissed Allie, "Ted confirmed Collins has been visiting Happy and Toby. We're going to go over and talk to them."

"Cabe, please be careful, don't forget the explosive that was used." Allie said as she began to worry.

Cabe nodded and winked at her, "I will."

Cabe didn't bother to change from his work clothes he just ran in and grabbed his keys and hurried back out and jumped into his SUV and took off. Cabe ended up having to wait fifteen minutes for Ted to arrive. Ted smiled as they both got out of their SUVs, "I can't believe you actually waited. I figured I would get here and find you choking them both to death."

Cabe laughed, "I didn't know that was an option."

They walked up and Ted knocked on their door. A moment later Happy opened the door scowling. "Can I help you?" She asked.

"Ms. Quinn, agent Ted Markus Homeland and I am sure you also remember agent Cabe Gallo. We need to speak with you and your husband." Ted told her ignoring her scowl.

She stepped back and opened the door wider, "You keep your hands to yourself Cabe or we're going to have a real problem."

Cabe held up both hands, "I'm only here as a witness."

Happy closed the door, "Fungus, Cabe and Markus are here."

Toby walked out of his office/storage room and walked over and put his arm around Happy. "How can we help Homeland? Our rates are expensive but within reason."

Ted kind of laughed, "Have either of you been in contact, in any form, with Mark Collins?

Happy frowned, "Why would we be in contact with that lunatic?"

Toby nodded, "I have to agree with my wife. He's a can of worms inside of a bass inside of a barracuda inside of a shark inside of a whale."

Ted looked at Cabe, "The last four nights just past midnight a light blue van has parked just on the other side of your driveway and your neighbor's security system caught this image last night." Ted gave the photo to Cabe and Cabe nodded as he looked at it and passed it over to Happy.

Happy and Toby looked at the image and clearly it was Collins sitting in the van. Happy looked at Cabe, "Come on Cabe, you know us. There is no way we would be involved with Collins in any capacity." Toby nodded his head.

* * *

Walter actually finished the dinner that Cabe and Allie had put in the fridge for him a few nights ago. Florence smiled at him, "Cabe is really going to be happy to find out you actually ate a full meal. And I will confess, I am pretty happy about it too."

Walter smiled as he stood and washed his plate and fork before walking back to his desk where he found an email from Ralph.

"Hey Dad,

Did you send me the new telescope? Mom's a little freaked about it. If you did I won't tell her. But thank you so much. I loved the frame you put my picture in, it really made it stand out.

Love you,

Ralph"

Walter replied,

"Good afternoon Ralph,

The lady at Michael's did an awesome job with the framing. You got a new telescope? That's awesome buddy. I've got a job I am on right now so I can't write a lot. Talk with you later.

I love you Ralph,

Walter"

Paige sat in her kitchen in front of the laptop as Ralph played his video game. She saw the email come in and she opened it and she sighed. She wondered if Walter didn't send it, where did it come from. She was sure Walter wouldn't have lied to Ralph. Unless he somehow knew it was her. She deleted his reply and made sure that the email she sent wasn't in the sent folder. She found she was thirsty for communication with Walter, even if it was email but she knew she really couldn't keep acting like she was Ralph and then she saw the other emails he'd sent and she decided she could read them and maybe that would satisfy her and so she opened the first one and began to read.


	23. Chapter 23

Ted pushed as hard as he could but because there was no evidence that Collins left the van or that anyone came out to it, it was just an oddity that Collins was there with no evidence of collaboration. Ted and Cabe stood out by their SUVs talking as they noticed that either Happy or Toby would occasionally peek out at them. "Cabe, you've known them for four years. What's your take?" Ted finally asked.

Cabe nodded, "I believe them but I also agree there seems to be something off with Toby but that could just be me, my anger because of him messing with Paige and keeping her away from Walter."

"Maybe if we run some traffic cams from this area around five we can pick up the van and maybe track it that way. Even if Collins isn't involved with what is going on at the Garage he is still a fugitive terrorist." Ted finally said.

Cabe shook his hand and headed home while Ted called forensics to get them checking the traffic cams.

* * *

Walter sat at his laptop going through the tech pages and checking LinkedIn for possible new employees. To maximize the likelihood for Scorpion to survive he needed to increase the possibility of meeting more job demands. He was quickly becoming disgusted by the amount of mediocrity that was on the site. Sure they were competent and would be valuable assets for regular businesses but to be able to fill the voids left by his former friends it would take a lot more. He'd already discounted that he'd find even a remotely close match, their IQs made them almost irreplaceable and he shuddered at the thought of trying to work with those who weren't a genius, at least not without her. The thought of Paige brought up her smile in his memories, her beautiful eyes, the way of how when she smiled her eyes picked it up and amplified that smile, of her voice, the way it wrapped around in his ears and distracted him in the only way he enjoyed being distracted. His heart sunk as he knew he had to stop thinking about her. She'd made her choice and it wasn't to move forward with him, regardless to the fact that he knew that she broke the mold and every other woman might as well be a man in his eyes. The only problem with that was he couldn't. He could no more stop thinking of her than he could stop using oxygen. Almost as a confirmation to that he found himself staring at her desk without realizing it. He sighed as he turned back to this laptop.

After searching for about an hour he'd finally found three people he thought might be border line acceptable as replacements and he sent them contact info. He got one reply in less than a half hour turning him down flat apparently Walter's 'brusque' manner reputation wasn't limited to just businesses anymore. The second one turned him down about twenty minutes later as they had already found employment. The third contacted him almost two hours later and seemed positive until he found out where the Garage was located and then he politely declined. Walter heard a knock on his door so he got up and walked over and opened it and saw Freddie their homeless friend standing there. "Freddie? Where have you been?" Walter asked as he let him step inside.

"Just got out of county, got pinched for shoplifting at Ralph's supermarket even though I didn't have anything on me from the store. They left me in there for over a week and made me walk all the way back over here to boot. Have you got any food Walter?" Freddie asked.

Walter smiled and walked with him back to the kitchen and pulled the dinner Cabe brought over last night out and put it in the microwave. Freddie smiled and sat at the table as Walter poured him a cup of coffee and got him a fork and knife. He got the plate out and sat it down in front of Freddie. Freddie took a big whiff and smiled, "Thank You Lord for Walter and his friends always looking out for ol'Freddie. Amen."

Walter just smiled as he poured himself a cup of coffee. "Do you need to wash any clothes or take a shower Freddie?" Walter asked.

Freddie shook his head, "The cops threw most of my stuff away and I was able to shower before I left this morning." Freddie stared into the back of the Garage, "What happened to your car?"

Walter looked back at the car, "An unfortunate encounter with the barrier wall outside."

"I'll say; you and your pretty lady okay?" Freddie asked.

Walter nodded sadly, "We're fine."

"Speaking of which, where is she and the rest of the gang? This place is quieter than the morgue." Freddie looked around some more.

"Well, long story short, they all quit. It's just me here now, well Florence and Cabe too." Walter tried to fight back the sorrow that came up.

Freddie sighed, "I'm mightily sorry to hear that Walter. You and she made a handsome couple. I would've loved seeing you pushing around a little one with her, that kid would have been a cute baby."

Walter took a deep breath, "Thanks Freddie, I've got a few things to do at my desk. Take your time eating."

"Sure thing Walter; thanks so much," Freddie watched as he walked away and he could see the sadness in him.

* * *

Ted was watching the video feed from the traffic cams, "Now here is where it happens." The tech told him when suddenly the feed cut out to pure static. "For exactly four minutes and twenty two seconds all the traffic cams in a twenty block radius of that point were dead. And then they all just come back on and the van is no where to be found."

"What the hell, okay, put out an alert for that van. Warn everyone so they know to approach with extreme caution and not to approach it without backup. Was the video interrupted or deleted?" Ted told him.

"It's not our system so it's hard to say for sure. I can contact LAPD's crime lab and asked them to look at it if you'd like." The tech told him.

Ted walked over to the wall map of the city, "I'd say that wouldn't hurt but we don't know if Collins as infiltrated them in some manner, better to keep this in house for now." He looked up that intersection and took a pencil. "Was that twenty blocks centered around that intersection or was it like the edge of it?"

The tech looked over, "It was the bottom center edge."

Ted nodded and he counted up twenty blocks and marked the northern boundary and then counted back down and counted ten blocks east and west of that point and marked those boundaries. He took a ruler and holding it in place he put the pencil on the eastern mark and rotated the ruler making a rough circle around that area. Ted tapped his jaw with the pencil as he looked at the map. "Now, if I could hack the system and either erase the video or disable the cameras why wouldn't I just shut them all down and get away? I didn't, so obviously I know the van is going to give me away so I would need to get rid of it and switch to another car. But where would I hide the van in this area? No parks or forests, no water sources, parking garages! That's where I would hide it. So I would either have a car waiting there for me or I would plan to steal one, but if I stole one then that would just give my new transportation away. Of course if it was stolen previously that wouldn't be an issue." Ted said out loud to himself.

Ted looked over his shoulder, "Any idea how many parking garages are in this area?"

The tech shook his head, "Let me run a search and see."

"That would definitely be the play, hide it in plain sight basically. Jump in a different car and no one would be the wiser." Ted nodded.

"I've got fourteen in that section of the city, nine of them within the four minute and twenty two second window, given the time frame." The tech told him.

"Add that to the alert to check those structures first. Here is hoping whichever one it is will have a camera system we can find whatever car he switches to. Of course he could switch to public transportation, walking is out of the question though too much of a chance to be seen and I really think it is unlikely that he would use public transportation though but we got to consider it." Ted kept examining the map. "Hrmm, you know, this really isn't too far from the Garage. Wouldn't it be something if this scumbag was actually not that far from it?"

The tech looked at him, "Sir?"

"Oh sorry, just something I've always done when I analyze things, talk to myself." Ted laughed. "So, let's say I am this genius lunatic, I've got a serious grudge against Walter and Toby. What's my play? Together they are too strong. All information says I am very patient, so I wait patiently. I'm a serious planner and my backup plans have backup plans, I distract and subtly move my pieces. So that's why I struck now. Scorpion breaking apart is perfect for my goal, it makes them weak and easier to manipulate. My first move is to attack the most dangerous piece on the board, shake him up rattle him, making him question himself, doubt himself render him completely useless and ineffective on the board. So Walter has been effectively neutered due to his grief but also with all the psychological attacks, lack of sleep, difficulty eating. But then what? What is up with visiting Toby and Happy four nights in a row but never getting out of the van or either one of them coming out to me? Maybe he is using their data connection? But for what purpose, set them up for some kind of illegal activity maybe? Toby clearly knows him psychologically; he's the next biggest threat. He had to want him neutralized as well." Ted kept tapping his chin with the pencil looking at the map.

"You know I am not authorizing this over time right Markus?" Carlson said.

Ted turned around, "Fine, don't authorize it." Ted turned back to look at the map.

"Is this about what is going on outside of Scorpion HQ still?" Carlson asked.

"No, sir, we have evidence that says the terrorist Mark Collins is back in the states and operating right here in LA. It's about him." Ted said without turning around.

Carlson scoffed, "And just like that, you're going to catch him all by yourself?"

"No, sir, but since you cut my budget I am making do with what I have." Ted continued to examine the map.

"I hope that wasn't some kind of derogatory remark against me." Carlson said.

"Of course not, sir, just telling it like it is." Ted said.

"You know, you're beginning to act a little too much like Gallo." Carlson said testily to him.

"Thank you sir, I'll take that as a compliment." Ted told him.

* * *

Cabe looked at all the work they got done at his home and nodded. He took Allie in his arms and hugged her tight, "Thank you sweetie. This place was starting to look a little shabby."

Allie smiled as they kissed, "Of course, couldn't have you getting in trouble with your HOA."

Cabe laughed.

* * *

"Is it okay if I hit the head before I leave Walter?" Freddie asked.

Walter smiled as he looked up from his laptop. "Of course Freddie, you know where it is. Do you need a blanket or anything for the night? I can ask Florence to take me someplace tomorrow and pick you up some clothes and stuff if you want."

"Oh you don't have to do that Walter, I'll hit up the Church down the street and they always have some good stuff for me." Freddie told him.

"Well if they don't and you still need something stop by and let me know tomorrow okay?" Walter told him.

Freddie laughed and waved as he walked back to the restroom. Walter walked into the kitchen and washed his cup and fork and threw the trash from the diner away.

* * *

Paige was feeling worse than she did before reading Walter's emails. Everything told her he was sincere and hurting so much even more than she thought she was and he was supporting her by guiding Ralph to respect her and treat her right. But she couldn't get Toby's voice out of her head. She walked into her bedroom and stripped to her waist and put on one of Walter's shirts hoping maybe it would help her figure out what she should do. She loved the feel of the cotton in his shirts; he'd paid a premium for these shirts they were made with Sea Island cotton. She knew she really should give them back because of how expensive they are but she clung to them. She sat down on the edge of her bed and picked up her phone and called Sylvester.

"Hey Paige, good evening," Sylvester answered quickly.

"Evening Sly, I need to ask you something. Remember what we talked about the day you and I went to look at the office space? You told me if I wanted I should just go and see Walter. Do you still think that?" Paige asked desperately.

Sylvester cleared his throat several times he knew she should but for some reason he heard himself tell her, "Paige, I don't think it's a good idea anymore. You know how much he hurt us. And you've said yourself that you wanted him healthy. And this is how we get him healthy according to Toby."

Paige's brow furrowed, "But, Sly, you told me he's been wrong every time in the past and he was probably wrong now."

"I think you should stay the course and we just proceed with the plan. Toby talked about it more with Happy and I the other day and we're both in agreement with him now." Sylvester told her.

"But, that doesn't make sense, what could he have said that made you change your mind?" Paige demanded.

"Don't you remember how he hurt you and me? He did these things on purpose, remember? And until he's EQ normalizes I really believe we need to stay away from him." Sylvester continued.

Paige stared at her phone unable to believe what she was hearing, he had hurt her, hurt Sylvester but why would he change his mind so suddenly? Sylvester asked, "Paige?" Paige hit the icon to hang up and ended the call with him.

She heard Ralph as he knocked on her door, "Mom, can we take my telescope outside so I can look at the sky tonight?"


	24. Chapter 24

**With yesterday having been my happy narcissist day I wasn't sure I would have a chapter for you today but, the story demanded to be told and I was able to get it done! To the Adventure! -Tim**

* * *

Cabe and Allie had invited Ted and Florence to join them at the Garage for dinner and everyone seemed to be having a good time, even Walter was a little more like himself and he managed to eat which made Cabe feel so much better. He noticed Ted, while actively participating, it was quite clear he was distracted. He finally asked, "What's on your mind Ted?"

Ted smiled as he cleared his throat, "Trying to figure out Collins's game plan." He looked at Walter, "I'm certain that everything that has happened has been to distract and disorientate you Walter. Everything tells me you are his most dangerous adversary, and he needs you off the board. But the Toby and Happy angle I just can't figure it out. Clearly there is some significance to him visiting their home but I'm just not sure what it is. He might be trying to use their data connection to maybe get them in trouble with the law but it just doesn't sound right in my head."

Walter looked at him, "Mark Collins?"

Cabe and Ted nodded, "Ted got video proof that Collins has been going over to Toby and Happy's place for the last four nights but he gets in the back of his van and nothing else happens for about five hours and then he drives away."

"That's very odd, have you tried tracking him through the traffic cams?" Walter asked.

Ted nodded, "We only tracked it yesterday but the tech went back and it happened all four nights. Each time he gets to the same intersection and then the feed for twenty blocks goes out. When it comes back he's no where to be found. We did manage to find his van today though. But the garage where he parked it, their surveillance system isn't working so we have no clue if he switched to a car or left the structure on foot. Maybe if the Simms had contacted me sooner we could have already caught him."

Walter walked over to his desk and grabbed his laptop and walked back and sat down at the table and he hacked into the city's computer system. After a few minutes, "Looks like the system was hacked five days ago and there is code here that allows certain cameras to be turned off."

Ted just stared, "How in the world can you figure that out so fast?"

Cabe laughed, "When it comes to computers I don't even question Walt anymore. It usually confuses me more when he explains."

Everyone but Walter laughed.

"Did you leave the van alone or did you impound it?" Walter asked.

"It was impounded," Ted told him.

"If it had been left alone we might have been able to set a trap to catch him." Walter told him.

"Well crap, what a rookie mistake on my part, one of the problems with trying to analyze something solo. You don't always think of everything." Ted shook his head. "But interestingly enough, it was found in a garage about four blocks from here. I think he's been keeping a close watch on you. Do you think there is any chance he'll go back to Happy and Toby's tonight?"

Walter shook his head, "He'll know you found the van and stay away. He'll proceed with his next plan even if what he was working on isn't finished."

"He might just think the van got impounded for stolen tags." Ted defended it.

Walter turned his laptop around, "This is video footage from the garage where the van was. He hacked a backdoor in and altered the data flow. He watched Homeland agents take the van, he knows. And backing it up to 5:30 this morning you can see he removed equipment so whatever he was doing, he's done."

Ted swore, "I use to be one of the best in this game. I can't believe I screwed this up."

Florence ran her hand along his back, "It's like Walter said, he's very devious, I don't think I would like you as much if you could compete with him in that regard."

Ted smiled and kissed her cheek. He looked at Walter, "Well, he obviously is scared of you to go to all the trouble of trying to remove you from action. What is he planning now?"

Walter's phone began to ring and he pulled it out of his pocket and saw it was a blocked number. He pointed at his phone and then pressed answer and put it on speaker, "Hello Mark."

Ted scooted back and walked to the far side of the kitchen and called Homeland and requested a trace on Walter's phone.

"Hello old friend. I was just wondering, how things are going for you in that nice, big, empty garage? Still think you made the right choice? Siding with them instead of with me?" Collins asked.

"Yes, I made the right choice regardless to the outcome." Walter told him.

"Really, let's do the math on that shall we?" Collins asked.

"No, let's not, Mark, what we had here was special but you weren't willing to work with everyone. You decided to be so arrogant and antagonistic with the others. You could have had a home here with us." Walter told him.

Collins asked, "Oh really, how would that have affected your precious girlfriend and her son then?"

"Mark, the cyclone would have expanded to include them as well. The problem is you didn't want it to. You didn't want anything that could divert me from what you wanted us to do. So what is it you want now? You have no real interest in me anymore; you never cared for the others. So what exactly is it that you want?" Walter asked.

"I want you to suffer like you made me suffer; I want you to feel as betrayed as I do. We could have been great together. We could have solved so many problems with the world the two of us. But when you saw what we could do you got scared and had me committed." Collins spat at him.

Tears came up in Walter's eyes, "You think you know what suffering is? You don't know or understand love, you can't possibly comprehend what true suffering is until you do and then to have the objects of that love walk out on you, leaving you alone in a place filled with the memories of a truly happy time in your life. To know that no matter how much you love them you no longer mean anything to them, just tossed away like yesterday's garbage. I was never scared of where we went. Yes, I hurt you, but I had to try and help you. You were lost and I knew I couldn't pull you out of that place; the others didn't care enough for you to try. The only thing left was outside help. I'm sorry I didn't do it better but I didn't do it to betray you. You could have come back and we could have tried again. But instead you set out to create a dangerous situation that potentially could have killed millions. But that wasn't enough, you breakout and tried to kill Toby. Then in the middle of a potential global catastrophe instead of working with us you pretend and then throw us off balance and use Cabe's compassion to run off and then try to frame him in some conspiratorial plot to set you free. Again you were endangering people because Cabe free and able to do his job is helping more people then you have since I've known you."

They heard slow steady clapping, "My heart bleeds for you old friend. This is all your doing; everything that is happening is because of your choices, your actions."

"No Mark, I am not accepting responsibility for how you have chosen to respond to what has happened. I can only accept responsibility for what I have done and I have apologized for my actions." Walter told him.

"How's your trace going G-man? Having some problems? Think I don't know about you agent Ted Markus? I give you props though. No one else figured out where my van was parked. But don't worry; before the game is over we'll meet face to face." Collins taunted him.

"You want to meet face to face? Come on over or name the time and place and I'll be happy to meet you. I won't even bring my gun." Ted threw back at him.

"Oh sure, that would be a fair encounter, trained Navy Seal, even one older and no longer training like you use to would still be more than a match for me physically. Luckily for me I outclass you mentally. How's your new girlfriend? Florence, any advice you'd like to give your boyfriend?" Collins responded.

"Go to hell Collins," Florence screamed.

Collins laughed as he turned off his transmitter. Walter heard the telltale sounds, "Stop the trace, it won't work. He was using radios to broadcast at least part of his signal so all you will get is to one cell tower. I'm sure he's altered how he did it last time so probably no way to track it like last time."

"So what was the point of all of this?" Allie asked.

"Probably just wanted us to know that he is watching all of us, maybe hope to put some fear in some of us so we might make mistakes." Walter answered. Walter looked pleadingly at Cabe, "Paige has already proved she won't answer my phone calls. You've got to go warn her about Collins, for her and Ralph's sake, please. Put them in protective custody until he's caught or at least some kind of detail. He wants me to suffer more, a sense of betrayal, him killing or seriously hurting them would be that betrayal and it would hurt me far more than anything else he can do. You should probably consider the same thing for Allie and Florence. Depending on his endgame this is going to get worse before it gets better."

"What about the others?" Cabe asked.

Walter shrugged, "What about them?"

Cabe sighed, "Do you think they are at risk?" Cabe saw the coldness in his eyes.

"That's up to you. I mentioned those I was most concerned about." Walter told him as he grabbed his laptop and moved to his desk and began working on it.

"Is anyone else going to ask how the hell he knew we were dating or how you figured out where his van was? Or that we're all here right now?" Florence asked looking at Ted.

"Well he could have easily seen us together outside if he has been watching this place and I had thought he might have had an in with LAPD but that wouldn't have told him I figured out where his van was. There were a couple of techs in the room with me while I was going over the map so it could have been one of them or Carlson perhaps. He came in while I was figuring out the map. But surely even as scummy as he is he wouldn't be involved with Collins, right Cabe?" Ted asked.

"That wouldn't be my first thought," Cabe told him. Cabe saw Walter look at him and then tap his watch impatiently. Cabe shook his head and looked at Ted, "Is there any money left in your budget to put a detail on Paige and Ralph?"

Ted shook his head, "I'm down to the bones, everything I did today Carlson already said he wasn't going to authorize my over time."

Cabe swore, "You know, I've got two spare bedrooms in my house. You and Florence could take one, Allie could stay in mine with me and Paige could take the other one and Ralph could sleep on my couch. My alarm system is both analog and digital thanks to Walter. It would be the best way to protect everyone without a detail. Well except come Monday morning."

Allie got up and put her arm through Cabe's and looked up at him. "Do you think Paige would agree?"

Cabe smiled, "I hope."

"What about Walter? Where will he stay?" Florence asked with a small voice.

"Right here," Walter replied.

"Florence is right Walter; if he can't get to them he'll probably come after you." Ted told him.

"He's welcomed to try but unlikely, besides, there is no way Paige would agree to go to Cabe's if she knew I was going to be there." Walter answered him.

Cabe walked out and bent over putting his hands on Walter's desk. "Son, maybe this will help her see the truth about how much she loves you and how much you love her."

Walter shook his head, "Please Cabe, this isn't time for fantasy, there is no telling what his time table is like, go get Paige and Ralph, protect them for me, I'm begging you, please."

* * *

Paige watched as Ralph continued to peer through his new telescope, she'd forgotten how much joy he could derive from it. She pulled her sweater tighter to her against the cool air that moved in from the ocean. She looked up as lights from two vehicles pulled into the parking area in front of their home. The headlights went out as they shut off their engines and she watched as two people got out of the one and one person got out of the other.

"Paige, Ralph," they heard Cabe call out to them.

Paige was stunned, "Cabe?"

Ralph turned to look and smiled and ran over, "Grandpa!" He leapt up into Cabe's arms and Cabe just hugged him tightly to him. Allie moved on up to Paige.

She smiled, "Paige."

Paige was shocked, "Allie?" They hugged for a moment, "Is everything okay?"

Allie looked into her eyes, "Maybe?"

"Paige, you remember my friend Ted Markus right?" Cabe asked.

Paige nodded.

"We've got a situation kid, we need you to pack a bag for you and Ralph and come with us. We're all going to stay at my place for a few days at least." Cabe told her.

Paige looked at him puzzled, "Cabe? What's going on?"

Cabe looked at Allie and she just nodded, "Sweetie, Ted has discovered that Collins is back in town, likely everything going on around the Garage is his doings. He called Walter tonight and was fairly threatening and Walter is worried he might," he looked at Ralph in his arms and continued quickly, "try something." Cabe lowered his head a little but kept his eyes on her. "Walter wanted a protection detail but Carlson already cut Ted's budget. So we figured we'd move all of you temporarily into my house and you'd all be safe until we can figure this out."

Paige stared at Cabe and he could see the fear in her eyes, "But," she looked at Ralph, "What about Walter?"

Allie took her hands, "He's staying at the Garage. It'll just be the six of us."

Paige looked at the four of them, "Six?"

"Florence is sitting in my SUV," Ted told her.

Paige looked at Allie, "Would you mind going in and help Ralph pack a few things while I talk with Cabe please?"

Allie smiled and took Ralph's hand and they got his telescope and took it with them.

"What the hell is going on Cabe?" Paige asked when they were out of earshot.

"Kid, Walter is concerned that Collins's anger at him will cause him to lash out at you and Ralph to make him suffer. He basically threatened Florence making it a point to show he knew that she was dating Ted and Walter is worried that he might try something against Allie as well to mess with me." Cabe told her.

"How scared should I be Cabe?" Paige asked in a small voice.

"Walter is afraid for you if that answers your question." Cabe told her.

"Why isn't Walter going to be there?" Paige asked.

"He's afraid you would refuse if you knew he'd be there. And as long as he is alone in the Garage it might interest Collins more." Cabe told her.


	25. Chapter 25

Allie brought out a sheet and blanket with a pillow and made the couch into a bed for Ralph. Paige sat in Cabe's recliner holding Ralph on her lap. Her cheek pressed into his head. Florence was staying in the bedroom Cabe pointed out was for her and Ted away from Paige. Part of her was more scared of Paige than anything else, even the fear of if Collins was to tell them she had been his spy didn't quite measure up to it. Ted and Cabe moved through the house double checking all the doors and windows to ensure they all were locked and that the locks were functioning properly.

"Baby, why don't you go get cleaned up for bed?" Paige told Ralph, he looked up at her and nodded as he got up and left the room. "Allie, why isn't Walter here with us?" Paige asked her.

Allie looked at her sadly, "Paige, I'm not comfortable talking with you about Walter this way."

Paige looked pleadingly at Allie, "Please?"

Allie looked around, "Paige, he loves you so much. You have no idea what he's going through without you. And if you really want to know then you need to talk to him. He'd love to be here with us, but he said you already refused to accept his phone call so he is convinced you would rather be at risk of that lunatic's plans than to be under the same roof with him. And he would never put you at risk and he'd gladly sacrifice his life for you."

"I would never ask that of him though. And I would rather he be safe with us." Paige said defensively.

Allie smiled, "Love doesn't wait to be asked. It motivates us to do whatever we can and whatever is required. Walter is convinced you want absolutely nothing to do with him."

Cabe walked in the room, "Well that's the last window and door and both alarms are set and registering properly. So even if he hacks the digital one he can't hack the analog."

"Cabe, what's been going on at the Garage?" Paige asked.

Cabe looked at Paige and shook his head, "Sorry, that doesn't really concern you."

Paige stared at him in disbelief, "It does, look where we are."

Cabe shook his head, "Kid, you know how much I love you and I've told you all you need to know about this as it concerns you. But what is going on at the Garage concerns Walter and not to be rude or a jerk, you ended everything with Walter, you dumped him and you quit Scorpion, so it no longer concerns you and I am not going to betray Walter's trust in me by telling you something he doesn't want you to know."

Paige stared at Cabe and then Allie in disbelief, "Well maybe I'll just go over and demand Walter tell me what is going on."

Cabe nodded, "Sounds like a good idea, I'll be happy to take you first thing after breakfast tomorrow."

"No, I mean tonight." Paige said angrily as she was getting upset.

Cabe shook his head, "The doors are locked and alarmed, we're not leaving here tonight unless it's a medical emergency or the place is on fire. And that's final."

"You're kidnapping me?" Paige asked in shook.

"No, technically I am now holding you against your will." Cabe told her.

Paige was clearly exasperated, "Why won't you just tell me what is going on?"

Cabe looked at her, "Why didn't you answer Walter's phone call?"

"I asked you first," Paige began to cry.

"I already answered your question; I won't betray Walter's trust." Cabe told her after he walked over and hugged her.

Ralph walked in wearing his PJs, "Mom? What's wrong?"

Cabe broke the hug and released her, and she reached up and wiped at her face, "Nothing really baby, just trying to get Cabe to tell me what is really going on with Walter."

"We could just email him and ask," he walked over and grabbed his laptop and Paige tried to stop him but the screen came on and he saw Walter's second email was pulled up on the screen. He looked at his Mom, "Mom?"

Paige looked almost horrified at him and she took in a deep breath, "Baby, I was just missing Walter so much, I had hoped that maybe his emails would fill that void a little. I wasn't spying I promise."

"It sure feels like you were spying, you could have just asked." Ralph told her clearly hurt.

Paige walked over, "You're right baby, I could have and I should have. But you were playing your game and I just," there really wasn't anything she could say to make it any better, "I'm sorry, I was wrong."

* * *

Happy and Toby stood on Paige's balcony knocking on her door but neither Paige nor Ralph would come to the door. They looked out and saw her car clearly there. "You think they are already in bed?" Happy asked.

Toby looked at his watch, "At 10 PM on a Saturday, unlikely."

Sylvester looked over from the large front room window, "I don't hear anything, no sounds from the TV or anything. You don't think she is at the Garage do you?"

"Why would she be there?" Happy asked.

"Well she did call me earlier basically trying to get me to give her permission to go see Walter." Sylvester admitted.

Toby looked at him, "Did you?"

"Of course not Toby, I told her what you told me to tell her." Sylvester's look grew puzzled as did Happy's. "Wait, did you tell me to tell her not to?" Sylvester asked.

Toby scoffed, "Why would I tell you to tell her that? She's free to go visit him if that is what she truly wants." Toby pulled his phone out and called Paige. "Paige, where are you? We're here at your place; we've got a couple of jobs we want you to look at with us so we can submit proposals for them. Cabe's? What are you doing at Cabe's? Collins? Are you kidding me? So what about us? Are we not worth protecting or even warning? What do you mean we already knew about Collins? Who said that? Of course we would have warned you if we had known about Collins. Yea, fine, good night."

Sylvester stared at him, "What about Collins?"

"Apparently Walter had Cabe move Paige and Ralph to his house to help protect them from Collins. But both of the rats are just letting us swing in the wind." Toby told them.

"So what are we suppose to do? Go over to Cabe's too?" Happy asked.

Toby shook his head, "I heard Cabe say in the background that the inn was full."

Sylvester was looking around nervously, "Why did she think you already knew about Collins?"

"Apparently Cabe told her we did." Toby told him.

"And you didn't tell me?" Sylvester asked shocked.

"Of course not, how would we know?" Toby told him.

"Well Cabe and Ted did come over and tell us about Collins." Happy reminded him.

"You believed them? I figured they were having a go at us for what we did to Walter." Toby told her.

"Well I guess we all go bunker down at our place for the night. Paige said we can meet up tomorrow to discuss the jobs." Toby told them.

* * *

Walter was going through the data file from the server but now with some sleep he knew why he was having problems, the file was horribly fragmented and garbled. He was having a hard time believing the forensic team had done that much damage to it. He wrote a recursive fractal algorithm to try and sort through the file and piece it back together. He sighed as he saw the estimated time to completion was over ninety six hours. He got up and walked into the kitchen and pour a cup of coffee and he stood there for several minutes just thinking. As much as he had enjoyed working with Collins all those years ago he was now very regretful he had ever met him. He'd wished he'd had been as EQ aware then as he was today. He could have saved so many people a lot of heartache. And what made it worse was he didn't really have anything productive to show for all that time working with him and to offset all the pain Collins was causing.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, he figured it was a waste of time but Sylvester deserved to know what was going on and so he called him. As suspected his call was declined and it went to voicemail. He sighed as he heard Sylvester's greeting message. "Hey Sly, sorry to disturb you, but in case you don't know, Collins is in town and is planning some kind of retribution. I don't know what or who he might go after but I wanted to warn you." Walter hung up and wondered if he should call Toby or Happy. He looked at their contacts but then remembered that Cabe and Ted had talked with them about Collins so he just exited out of his contacts and walked over to his desk.

He saw he now had an email waiting for him so he called up his email program and saw it was from Ralph. He clicked on it.

"Good evening Dad,

Thank you for worrying about Mom and me and having Grandpa come get us. It's kind of cool at his house. Did you know he has an analogue and a digital security system? That's so cool. Mom is worried because you aren't here with us. She said she'd feel better knowing you were here safe with us. Would you mind coming over? I'd really love to see you regardless as to the reason why.

She really wants to know more about everything happening around the Garage since it seems to be spilling out all over, but Grandpa won't tell her. I said we could just ask you here in email.

I wanted to tell you I received a new telescope today! I was using the new telescope when he arrived to get us. It is the exact same model you got me when Mom broke my old one. Florence seems really scared, she's been hold up in the bedroom Grandpa said was for her and Ted to us. Mom is sleeping in the other bedroom and I get to sleep on the couch, kind of like camping Grandpa said. No don't really like real camping but this kind is pretty cool.

Hope to hear from you soon and really hope to see you here at Grandpa's.

Your son,

Ralph."

Walter nearly jumped out of his chair when he read that Paige wanted him safe there with them but just as quickly he settled back into his chair. She was only saying that because she was scared and as bad as he wanted to be with them, he didn't want to only be some kind of security blanket. He wanted the woman he loved to want him totally.

"Dear Ralph,

You are so welcomed; I wish I could be there with you. You won't understand this but your Mom doesn't really want me, she's scared and what she really wants is to feel safe. And even as good as that makes me feel knowing she would feel safer with me there and even though I am almost willing to just be that, I want the whole package. I love and miss you both so much and I can't bear the thought of once this is over your Mom walking back out of my life which I know is what would happen and I couldn't handle that.

I can't really comment on Homeland business so if Cabe won't tell her I surely can't either. But don't worry too much about it. I have both of your backs; I will always do everything in my power to protect you guys even if it is from a distance. You know that right?

It is very cool that Cabe has both an analogue and a digital security system I am so glad he does. It will help keep you safe. And I am so glad you got a new telescope and got to use it tonight. It's a beautiful night for it. Tell Florence I said to relax, she's safe and you be good for your Mom and Cabe and you all have a goodnight's sleep.

Honored to be your Dad,

Walter."

* * *

Ralph laid there on the couch staring at his laptop just waiting, he was sure that Walter would respond telling him he was on his way over to be with them he was almost bouncing with anticipation. Paige was in the bathroom getting ready for bed when his eyes lit up as the email came into his email program. He pulled it over and opened it and read it quickly and his heart broke as he read Walter's words. Walter was right, he didn't understand. His Mom said it, why wouldn't she want him there?

Cabe was sitting in his recliner watching an old John Wayne movie when he heard something and he muted the TV and he heard Ralph trying not to cry out loud. He looked over and saw he had pulled his blanket up over his head and he quietly got up and stepped over and sat down next to him. "Hey kid, what gives?" Cabe asked him.

"Dad's not coming over. He said Mom doesn't really want him to come over, she's just scared." He pulled his blanket down and handed his laptop to Cabe and Cabe quickly read the message.

Cabe nodded, "Yea, it's a difficult concept for sure. Do you understand what he is saying?" Ralph shook his head. Cabe sighed, "Because of how things happened with your Mom, Walter is convinced that if there wasn't a threat by Collins your Mom and you would still be at your place and she wouldn't have had you reach out to him like she did tonight. Basically he thinks deep down your Mom is still angry and doesn't want anything to do with Walter except to alleviate her fear. Does that explain it better?"

Ralph slowly nodded, "Is he saying he doesn't believe me?"

Cabe smiled, "No son, he's saying you didn't understand your Mom's true feelings."

"But, she sounded sincere about wanting him here." Ralph protested.

Cabe nodded as he wrapped his arms around Ralph, "Walter is still hurting son, it's going to take something pretty special to make him see the truth if your Mom really is serious. An email simple or elaborate won't do it."

"What will it take? I am sure she would do it." Ralph asked.

Cabe smiled, "I don't know son, right now I don't think anything would convince him. Walter's going to be worrying about you and Paige's safety and he's only going to care about stopping Collins from ever harming you guys or anyone else ever again. But after that he might try and contact your Mom again, do you think you can wait for that?"

Ralph sniffed as he hugged onto Cabe a little tighter and nodded his head.

Paige stood just on the other side of the hallway that ran back to the bathroom and listened with tears in her eyes. How could she have done this, they should have faced the truth about the lecture as a family so they could be facing everything else together. She screamed silently as she heard in her mind, "Manipulation".


	26. Chapter 26

**I know some of you are really going to like what happens here and then you are going to hate what happens here...Sorry. To the Adventure! -Tim**

* * *

Walter sat at his desk his thoughts darker than they had ever been in his life. Certainly his pain over Paige contributed to his situation but Collins and his desire for revenge for what he thinks as a slight against him had him questioning his personal code. He'd been grieved when all those people were killed when the US used his aid package software to drop bombs, he'd felt guilty for not even trying to save that criminal dangling from the roof, he grieved over the scientist who died in that biolab from the Sarin gas, his sister from MS he grieved most of all. He'd tried time and again to save everyone and he had mostly succeeded. But to actually contemplate not just willingly but to actually enjoy thinking of taking a life but now to actually realize he wanted to take a life was something that he had never even thought he was capable of. His dream of killing Tim as he ran in to interrupt his marriage to Paige was at the forefront of his thoughts. Twice now had Collins threaten to end lives, the first time would have killed millions, the next time only one, but he'd meant for it to happen in front of the entire team and then again in the middle of trying to save all life on the planet he jeopardized all life to orchestrate his own escape. Would it be wrong to kill him, could he kill him, in cold blood, Walter thought he knew the answer and it scared him.

Walter's head came up as a horrible thought came to his mind, the blood drained from his face as a shocking truth finally manifested within his brilliant mind. His grief, anger, bewilderment, his inability to eat, sleep and the accident, all of it had rendered him incapable to help in the situation they all now faced just as Ted had said. He jumped up and ran over to the server room and entered. He grabbed the keyboard and began typing commands into the system and watching as the server responded to the commands. He slammed his fist against the wall as he swore. The truth had been right there in front of them the entire time how could they-he have been so blind?

He walked slowly out of the server room and crossed over to his desk and picked up his phone. He pulled up Cabe's contact and hit dial.

* * *

Cabe lay in bed cuddling with Allie, smiles on both of their faces as the morning light spilled into their room from behind the curtains when his phone began to ring. They both groaned as Cabe reached over to grab it, "Just let it go to voicemail Cabe." Allie protested.

Cabe smiled but saw it was Walter, "It's Walter, I can't. Good morning Walter, How are-What? Are you serious? Right now? Alright it'll take us a bit. We're still in bed. Yea, see you soon son."

Allie was slightly alarmed, "Cabe?"

Cabe kissed the back of her head, "Walter wants to see Florence and I right now, something to do with Collins. Try and get a little more rest; I'll be back as soon as I can."

Cabe got up and threw on his jeans and sweat shirt and put on his socks and loafers before stepping out into the hallway. He walked past the door to the bedroom Paige was in and walked downstairs. He smiled as he saw Paige crashed in the recliner and Ralph half off the couch. He walked into the hallway and walked past the bathroom and knocked on the other bedroom door. He heard a groan and some shuffling and finally the door opened as Ted stood there half asleep, "What's up Cabe?"

Cabe smiled, "Sorry, Walter called and said he needed Florence and I at the Garage as soon as possible."

Ted's eyes opened a bit more, "Oh, okay, give us a few and we'll be ready to go."

Cabe shook his head, "Walt said he needs you to stay here to watch after the others. Don't worry; I'll protect your girl."

Ted stared at him for a moment, "Yea, that's good thinking. I'll wake her."

Cabe nodded, "I'll be in the kitchen waiting for her."

Florence finally entered the kitchen her stomach was in a knot which eased a little when Cabe smiled at her. Ted stepped into the kitchen and kissed her again as Cabe turned off the alarms for the back door and after they walked out Ted turned them back on. "I'm going to stop and grab some coffee on the way, you want some?" Cabe asked Florence and she just nodded.

"Did Walter say what this is about?" Florence asked.

Cabe shook his head, "Just that he had some information on Collins he needed to run past us."

The knot in Florence's stomach returned as she got into Cabe's SUV and they took off.

The Garage door was already unlocked or perhaps it had been unlocked the whole night but whatever the case Cabe pushed it open and walked inside holding the door for Florence. "Morning Walt, we brought some coffee and doughnuts." Cabe called out to him but then saw him brooding at his desk and he sighed.

Florence took one look and she knew; she knew he knew and suddenly she wished she was back at Cabe's standing before Paige. Tears began to well up into her eyes and spill over the edge to run down her cheeks. "Walter, I am so sorry. I never meant for any of this. I never expected it to go as far as it did. Please, please forgive me."

Cabe looked from Walter to Florence and back to Walter, "What's going on?"

"Florence is working with Collins." Walter finally said.

Cabe's blood pressure shot up and his face darkened five shades, "Are you kidding me?! This whole time you've been pretending to be our friend? You've broken bread with us and you've been working for that psychopath?" Cabe grabbed her left wrist roughly and twisted her arm back behind her as he went to grab his handcuffs and then realized he hadn't brought them. "Damn it," he screamed as he let go of her arm.

She didn't try to run, she was determined to stand there and take whatever it was she was going to have to endure. Her arm was hurting so badly, she felt Cabe must have torn something but that pain was nothing compared to how her stomach was feeling. She turned back to Walter, "Please Walter I am so sorry. Collins had infiltrated my company's server and leaked a new process we were developing to my competition and when I sold stock to invest money back into the company to save it he bought that stock and offered the votes to the board who used them to kick me out of my own company. He then offered to give me his proxy to get my company back if I would just feed him information about what you guys were doing. I didn't see that much wrong with it and then he wanted a little more and then a little more and as he had hoped when Paige found out about the lecture he wanted me to confess feelings for you to ensure you'd break up. I even went along with his plan to shake you psychologically, well at least until that last message. When I heard first hand just how badly I was hurting you I couldn't go through with it anymore and even though it has cost me my company I broke off all dealings with him. I know; I know it's all so horrible but I am so very sorry Walter."

"Your feelings of remorse have only just begun sweetheart. Treason carries a bigger penalty than you know." Cabe pulled out his phone intent on calling Homeland.

"Cabe," Walter said. Cabe looked up and saw Walter shake his head no. "I won't be the instrument to inflict the pain I have felt these past days on someone else. Ted has grown to love Florence and her actions are against me and I won't co-operate in anything that will harm that relationship."

"This isn't just about you Walter, she attacked a Homeland agent, almost killed him." Cabe all but shouted.

"I didn't know Cabe; I swear I never would have used that gas had I realized he was sensitive to it." Florence pleaded.

Cabe turned and stared at her angrily, "Zip it."

"Cabe, as bad as that was, he's fine and there is no proof that Florence has done anything wrong and I won't testify about what I know or heard here today." Walter looked up at Cabe.

"You'd be willing to go to jail on contempt charges and then when you finally agree to testify be brought up on charges of conspiracy and treason right along side of her?" Cabe asked incredulously.

Walter kind of laughed, "What could prison do to me that could compare to what I have already gone through? Is your sense of justice so strong you'd lock me up never to see me again?"

Cabe stared at Walter as he stared back. Cabe finally grabbed the chair that was sitting by Walter's desk and threw it back towards the Airstream and he began walking around cursing.

Walter saw Florence cringing but noticed how she favored her left arm, "Is your arm okay?"

She nodded, "I think a tendon might have torn when Cabe grabbed it."

Walter pointed at Sylvester's desk, "Sit down." He got up and walked into the kitchen and filled a wash cloth with ice and brought it back and gave it to her as he handed her a box of tissues from Paige's desk.

"What do you know about Collins?" Walter finally asked her.

"Honestly nothing Walter, he always contacted me unless I had to talk to him about something I would use a burner phone to call a number he had programmed into it." Florence admitted as she held the ice to her wrist.

Walter nodded, "Do you remember the number?"

Florence nodded and gave it to him.

Walter looked over and saw Cabe had finally cooled down a little. "Okay, Florence it goes without saying when this is over you are no longer part of Scorpion 2.0. Agreed?"

Tears broke over her eyes as she nodded.

"Florence's part in this ends here, we will not discuss it again and we will not disseminate that information. Do you agree?" Walter looked at Florence and she slowly nodded and he looked at Cabe who glared at him but finally nodded.

"What are your feelings for Ted?" Walter asked her point blank.

"He's the only light I've seen in months; I want a chance at a future with him." Florence finally said.

Walter nodded, "Cabe, I know this will go against everything you believe but I was serious earlier about not causing the grief I have felt to someone else, we do not reveal the truth to Ted. Give him the chance to be happy with Florence."

Cabe's scowl spoke more volumes in the five seconds Walter looked at him than there were encyclopedias. "What about your happiness?" He finally asked.

Walter shook his head, "I screwed up, I had my chance to make it right and I chickened out and now I have to deal with that. Ted hasn't done anything wrong and I won't be a party to it. Can you agree to this?"

Cabe turned his glare to Florence and swore, "I guess."

Walter nodded, "I really need a yes or no Cabe."

"Fine, I can agree to this." Cabe said disgustedly. Cabe asked, "So now what?"

Walter had been thinking about that question since he called Cabe, "I'm running a program to fix the problem with the data file, it'll be repaired in four days. Once it's fixed I can go through it and see if there is something there to help in catching Collins. There is a chance there could be evidence wherever Collins is that could implicate Florence, I plan to destroy that evidence if there is. Will you be okay with that?"

"Damn it Walter, it's bad enough you are refusing to share the information that proved to you that she was in on this and you are refusing to testify about what she freely confessed a few minutes ago and now you are telling me you are planning to commit a felony to help someone who has caused you more pain than anyone I know? What is wrong with you?" Cabe demanded.

Walter shrugged, "You are free to proceed how you want Cabe I won't stop you."

Cabe's phone rang as he stared at Walter. He finally pulled it out of his pocket and saw 'Allie calling'. He hit answer, "Hey sweetheart. Yea sorry, tension is a little high at the moment. Yea it's all fine. Umm, I'm not sure." Cabe looked at Walter, "How much longer do you think we'll be?"

"We're done here," Walter told him.

"Allie, we're done. We'll be headed home shortly. I don't know, let me ask." He looked at Walter, "Allie wants to know if you are planning to come with us so she can make breakfast for you too?" Walter shook his head no. "He says no. I know but he's refusing. Alright we'll see you in about thirty minutes then. I love you." Cabe hung up. Cabe looked at Walter, "I guess we better get going then. You do know that little man is desperate to see you right?"

Walter nodded his head, "I'm desperate to see both of them too."

"Then come with us Walter, I heard Paige last night, she has real remorse herself. If you walk in there with us I know she is going to forget everything to be in your arms again," Florence pleaded.

Walter shook his head, "It's not what Paige wants."

"Son, until you talk with her, you won't know what she wants," Cabe told him.

Walter laughed, "Look around Cabe, I think she made it quite clear what she wants."

Florence looked at Walter, "Thank you; I do not deserve your kindness Walter. I was a horrible person. But I hope I have at least begun the process of becoming a better one. I know sorry will never be enough but I truly am and if I can ever do anything for you, you only have to tell me."

Cabe looked at Walter, "So what lie do we tell Ted about why you wanted us here about Collins?"

"Tell him I had found some banking charges that I didn't remember and needed to verify with Florence if she had charged them before I assumed it was Collins." Walter told him.

* * *

Cabe was extremely quiet in the SUV as they made their way back to his place. When they were about halfway there he finally spoke. "Ted is one of the best investigators I have ever known. If we are going to sell this bull poop we're both going to have to watch our P's and Q's or he'll figure it out. From this point forward, I forgive you for what you have done and now you haven't done anything wrong. I also apologize for hurting your wrist. He lifted his arm up and slid it around her shoulders and hugged her to him."

Florence with tears in her eyes leaned into that hug, "Thank you, I can't believe I fell like that, if your reflexes hadn't been so quick, if you hadn't grabbed my wrist I could have really hurt myself." Florence told him.

Cabe nodded his head, "You're welcome."


	27. Chapter 27

**If you haven't seen my twitter post, this story is so close to that fateful meeting of Scorpion 2.0 and Centipede Partners! Given how little time has been passing in each chapter I am not sure how many more chapters to the mutual story lines there are, I only know there are like 3 days before they meet. At which time this prequel will be put on hold until the other story is told and then I hope to come back and continue this story for a little while. The other story was talking so much last night that after writing this chapter I finally gave in and started the first chapter for it 1,000 words so far. I had a good title for it picked out last night but today, I can't remember what it was. Anyway enough of that, thank you for reading, a special thank you to those who comment back, it is always great to know if the work is being enjoyed! To the Adventure! -Tim**

* * *

Cabe had his arm around Florence's shoulders as they were walking up to the back door of his house. Florence was repeating over and over inside of her mind, 'I've done nothing wrong, I've done nothing wrong.'

The door opened just before they got there, Ted smiling as they walked on up. Cabe dropped his arm from her shoulders as Florence ran on up and hugged Ted tightly. As they broke their embrace Ted asked, "Everything okay?"

Cabe smiled, "Walter, this thing with Collins has him a little jumpy. He found some bank transactions that he didn't recognize and he wanted to be sure that Florence hadn't made them before he launched another search for him. Turns out he had asked Florence to pick some different things up the other day."

Ted laughed, "Well giving all he has been through the last, Lord how many days as it actually been? He's been through so much in such a short time. No wonder he is a little spacey."

Ralph came running up and looked out and then he frowned in disappointment. "Hey kid, what's wrong?" Cabe asked.

"Allie said you went to the Garage, I had hoped Walter would come back with you." Ralph told him.

Cabe smiled and stepped up and hugged him, "Sorry kid, Walter isn't there yet."

They stepped in and saw Paige and Allie had breakfast almost ready for them. "Wow, something smells good, I should go away a little more often." Cabe said as he laughed.

Allie smiled at him, "Just try it and I'll chain you up in the basement."

Everyone laughed.

"Was there any news on Collins?" Paige asked as they all sat down to eat.

"Not really, Walter had forgotten he'd asked Florence to pick some things up for him the other day and he wanted to be sure they weren't fraudulent charges or something that Collins might have done." Cabe told her.

"Oh, well that must have been the day I ran into Florence at the drug store." Paige said.

Florence smiled, "It was."

"That's not like Walter to forget something like that. He's usually got his entire checkbook registry memorized." Paige looked at Cabe.

"You're fishing and I'm not biting young lady." Cabe told her before stuffing a bite of pancakes into his mouth.

Paige grumped.

"Seriously though, that does sound like something that's weird for him to forget." Allie said.

"It's just some stress dear," Cabe said as he winked at her and she just nodded.

"Cabe, if we're going to be here today, is it okay for the gang to come over? They wanted to discuss some jobs for us to bid on." Paige asked.

Ralph glared at his Mom, "May I be excused please?"

Paige looked at his plate, "You've barely eaten."

"I've lost my appetite." Ralph sulked.

Paige sighed, "Fine, but don't come back until lunch."

Ralph jumped up and ran into the front room.

Cabe watched him go, "He's about as happy with them as I am."

"Cabe," Paige almost whined, "I'm just trying to do my best."

"I get that kid, but have you stopped to understand what this company is going to say to Walter?" Cabe asked her.

"What do you mean? I don't even want to be a part of it, if they hadn't of brow beaten me until I gave in, now I'm $10,000 into it." Paige told him.

"Wait, you're saying they manipulated you into giving them $10,000 for this company?" Ted asked her.

"Yes, well no, I don't remember anymore. They kept coming over and calling me and I kept telling them I wasn't ready, I was just trying to deal with the fallout with Walter, Ralphy's anger and sadness, my own and they just wouldn't let up until I gave in." Paige told him.

"Kid, you guys created a company for the express purpose of competing with Scorpion and you haven't even told Walter. Do you know what that is going to do to him? He already believes you hate him. When he finds out it's going to cement that deep into his soul. If you really think you want to make things right, you better talk to him before he finds out some other way." Cabe told her.

"Let's go back to what you said. If they have coerced you into giving them money for this venture and you really don't want to be part of it, that's a crime and the amount would make it a federal crime. I can bust them for that." Ted told her.

Paige looked horrified, "Oh God, no Ted, I can't do that. I've just got to figure out what to do. I've been so confused."

"Paige sweetie, its okay, relax, guys, leave her alone right now. You're bombarding her just like they did. Just eat and maybe go take a bath." Allie told her while defending her from the guys.

Cabe nodded, "Allie's right, I'm sorry. If you want to meet with them you are welcome to meet with them here, but I'll take Ralph for a walk or something because he doesn't need to be around them any more than I do. Okay?"

Paige smiled gratefully to Allie and Cabe, "Thank you guys, I really appreciate it. Especially given what is going on between Walter and me. I know your allegiance will always be him first and I would never ask you to change that, I'm just so glad you still care about me and Ralphy."

Cabe stood up and walked over and hugged her from behind with tears in his eyes, "Kid, I'm always going to care about and love you and that kid. You're my daughter."

Paige broke down and began crying as she turned in her chair and clung to Cabe.

* * *

Ted and Florence had gone back to their bedroom after they had eaten, "Is everything okay Florence?" Ted asked as the door closed behind them.

She smiled weakly and nodded, "It was just so hard everything going on with Paige and then Cabe."

Ted smiled, "Well I meant about your meeting with Walter, I noticed it seemed you were pretty stressed when you guys came back."

"Oh," she laughed a little nervously, "Yea, it was just so hard seeing Walter unsure and questioning like that. I guess everything has just taken a toll on him; of course it could have been residual left over from the accident. He'd hit his head pretty hard. I still can't believe he didn't break his nose."

Ted walked up and put his arms around her and kissed her deeply, "We're not moving too fast for you are we? I know we got close rather quickly, I'm not trying to push anything."

Florence smiled as she kissed him back, "If you was, I would have said something. It's a little fast but, other then Scorpion as friends, it's been so long since I have connected with a guy on a personal level and I was more welcoming for that kind of connection. I hope you aren't thinking anything bad about me for it?"

Ted smiled and leaned in to her ear, "Not unless you count," and whispered into her ear and she giggled and playfully smacked his arm as she kissed him.

* * *

Cabe watched Ralph as he played on his laptop; Ralph had changed his clothes after Cabe told him they'd go for a walk while Paige meets with the guys. Cabe kept glancing over at the surveillance monitors when he saw Happy's truck pull up out back. He cleared his throat and raised his voice, "Paige, they're here." Paige came down from upstairs wearing one of Walter's shirts and Cabe stood up and as he walked by her he stopped and looked at her, "What's that you're wearing?"

Paige looked down, "Oh, it's one of Walter's shirts he had left at my place."

Cabe shook his head, "No, the fragrance."

Paige blushed, "When I packed my bag I found a bottle of Walter's cologne and I squirted the shirt. Is-is that okay with you?"

Cabe leaned over and gave her a little kiss on her cheek, "Sweetheart, if it helps you, it's fine by me." He walked into the kitchen and turned off the alarms on the door and opened it. Looking at the guys standing there, "Welcome," he stepped back and turned so they could come on in, "Ralph, let's go."

Ralph walked right past them and out the back door. Cabe hit a couple of keys on the alarm and walked out the door closing it behind him.

* * *

Toby watched them leave and then looked at Paige, "Something we said or do we smell?"

Paige forced a smile, "No, they're just not happy about us forming this company. Are you guys sure we're doing the right thing? Are you sure this isn't going to hurt Walter?"

"Paige, we've gone over this plan a dozen times. It's going to be fine and it is going to help Walter's EQ, trust me. I am a Harvard trained Dr you know." Toby told her.

Paige sighed and turned, leading them into the front room.

Sylvester was of course excited and he quickly sat down and broke out the print outs he'd made of the jobs he'd found online. Paige looked them over, there were three of them. All three needed to have their bid put in today; two of them would have interviews this week and the third the week after. "They seem simple enough, they are just programming related. Are you going to be up to completing them Sly? The actual deadlines are fairly close to each other." Paige finally asked.

"Well, both Happy and Toby have coding skills so what we thought is, I can design the flow charts and they could write some of the code following the charts and then I can code everything else and tie their code into it." Sylvester explained.

"I got to admit the payday for them is quite generous." She looked at Happy and Toby, "Make me believe you two are up to helping Sly complete these jobs."

* * *

"I hate this Grandpa; everything is so messed up right now. Dad should be here with us. Mom should be at his side and helping him get jobs. I am really beginning to hate the others, even though Dad wants me to remain friends with them." Ralph looked up at Cabe as they walked.

Cabe nodded, "I know kid and I never saw Walter as happy as he has been with you and your Mom in his life. I doubt he even realizes how happy he was before they started dating. Well not counting the whole Tim era. Be he was still happy with you two."

"Is there anything you can think of that I can do to help Walter see Mom is serious?" Ralph asked softly.

Cabe put his hand on his shoulder as they continued walking down the street. "I wish I could think of something. But until your Mom just gives all this Centipede stupidity up and goes to see Walter he's going to continue to believe she doesn't want him in her life anymore. Words on the computer or even a phone call won't work; she's going to have to be standing in front of him for him to believe it. I'm sorry."

"What if, what if I run away to Walter's and I refuse to leave until she comes and gets me?" Ralph asked desperately.

Cabe smiled, "Do you know how much you would scare your Mom if you ran off like that? Would you really want to scare her that bad?"

"If it brought them face to face, yes," Ralph said defiantly.

* * *

Ted had sat down at the small desk that was in the bedroom he was sharing with Florence, he had his little notebook out and going over all the information he had written down since all this started.

Florence had gone to take a shower since she didn't have time to take one before she left with Cabe. She still couldn't believe that Walter had basically forgiven her even though he was going to kick her out of Scorpion once Collins was caught. She thought about that and then wondered how Walter thought that would play out with Ted since he seemed to really want to protect him from pain; he'd surely question why he was firing her. Then she realized what Walter would want her to do, resign, it was the only way to protect Ted from the truth so he wouldn't have to arrest her or make him complicit in their crime of covering up her involvement with Collins. She marveled at what Walter was willing to do to protect someone he barely knew from the pain she helped to cause him. She began crying from all the guilt she was feeling for the pain she had wrought.

"Hey Mike, its Ted Markus, remember that parking garage they found the van in yesterday? You said their camera system was busted. Right, well here's the thing. There's a private contractor who was able to hack the garage's system and was able to find the actual footage and it showed Collins removing gear from that van. Can you try getting into it again? See if you can't recover that footage and see what Collins did with it. No, the contractor didn't say if it showed what he did after removing the gear. Wait," Ted's head came up. Had Walter concealed this from them? "Hey Mike, check it out and let me call you back later okay? Or call me if you find out something, right, later."

Surely he wouldn't have hidden valuable information from them, would he? Ted sat there pondering the possibility.

Florence walked in wrapped in a towel and a towel around her head. She saw Ted was lost in thought, "Ted? Is everything okay?"

Ted shook his head and smiled, "Sorry, what?"

Florence smiled, "I'd asked if everything was okay."

Ted nodded, "Yea, I just remembered Walter had showed us the video of Collins removing the gear from the van but didn't tell us what he did after that. You don't think he would withhold information about Collins do you?"

Florence turned, swallowing hard and dropped the towel that was around her body as she grabbed her panties. "No, I don't think he would do that to us."

Ted smiled and reached out and ran his hand down her side and brought it around to cup her right butt cheek.

* * *

Walter sat in the Garage watching the video as Collins loaded the equipment into another car. Just before getting in he turned and looked up at the camera watching him and he just smiled. "Yea, smile. I am going to catch you, you smug son of a," Walter bit his tongue on purpose. "I am going to catch you. And you are going to regret ever challenging me and threatening those I love."

Walter hacked back into the city's traffic cam and began searching the cameras outside of the garage just after 5:30 am yesterday. He finally saw the car Collins was driving and he continued to follow it when the feed was lost and then Collins's face came up on Walter's laptop. "Hello old friend, are we alone now?"


	28. Chapter 28

"Collins," Walter said with disgust.

"I knew you would figure it out and follow my car leaving the garage. Sorry I couldn't let you see the rest of the footage of where I am. Can't make it that easy," Collins told him.

"What do you really want Mark?" Walter asked him.

"I told you, I want you to suffer in betrayal like I did. And it's coming up soon too." Collins told him.

"There's nothing left to be betrayed over Mark, the guys have all left. It's just me, Cabe and your mole. And once your gone she'll be gone too." Walter told him.

Collins laughed, "Well I am impressed, a little. I figured it would be a couple of more days before you finally got enough of your brains back to figure it out. But don't worry; I'll be scrambling your brains up again in a few days. But you really can't blame her, she was so desperate to save the company she'd built from the ground up with her own hands, she'd spend years developing and researching some really remarkable products. Shame she didn't have a better security system to keep a hacker out."

"Mark, you didn't go to this trouble just to tell me what I already know. What do you really want?" Walter asked again.

"Do you ever miss our work together?" Collins asked.

"Of course I do Mark; we had made some really good progress on some of our ideas. But we'd slip into the rabbit hole and a lot of our work got lost. And because of your actions the others weren't interested in helping which is why we needed them." Walter reminded him.

"We didn't need those inferior intellects, they were a constant distraction. Together we could have accomplished so much. And that's what I am offering you now, a one time chance. Swear to me that you will join me and we go back to how we use to work together and I will end all of my plots against all of them. I'll even help you save Toby." Collins told him.

"You must be suffering hypoxia if you think for one minute I would ever join back with you. No future outcome is worth it." Walter told him.

"Walter, I'm surprised, you aren't concerned with Toby?" Collins asked.

"Of course I am, but he made his choice. And I'm really tired of this game. I am coming for you Mark and you are going to regret ever challenging me." Walter told him.

Collins smiled, "Well I guess, to the chase! May the best man win."

The video feed went dead.

* * *

They'd been walking for about thirty minutes when they came up to a convenience store. Cabe smiled and they walked over and entered it. He grabbed some beef jerky and a couple of snickers before they resumed their walk. He handed one of the snickers to Ralph, "I figure you must be getting a little hungry since you didn't eat very much."

Ralph smiled, nodding his head as he opened the candy bar and taking a bite. "Do you know how long they are going to be there? I really hate it when they hang around Mom so long. They just keep her so confused about everything."

"Well we can start walking back to see if you want. I'm sure Allie isn't too far and will step in if they try to confuse her while they are there." Cabe told him.

"I wish Mom could see that what Toby is saying is pure rubbish. Harvard trained Dr my foot. They should pull his license for this nonsense." Ralph said angrily.

* * *

Paige nodded her head, "Okay, it sounds like you guys have got this under control so we can bid on them."

"We also figured if there was any real problem we could enlist Ralph's assistance in writing some of the code." Sylvester told her.

Paige stared at him and then the others, "Absolutely not, you're not exploiting my son to do a job you want us to bid on period. Is that understood?"

All three of them looked scared for a moment at her ferocity and nodded.

"Good! If you even hint at such a thing again I'm gone. Do I make myself clear?" Paige continued with heat in her voice.

Again they all just nodded with large eyes.

Paige got off the couch and began pacing around the room, "I really can't believe you guys. Now, how do we want to price this?" Paige asked as she tried to calm down.

"Well we figure Walter isn't going to lower his fee just because he doesn't have so many bodies in his employ anymore. Besides he might start trying to recruit other people to work with him to increase potential jobs he can bid on. So I think we should bid twenty percent under what Walter would normally." Toby told her.

"That's not very ethical for us to use the information we know about Walter against him." Paige fretted.

"Wake up and smell the coffee Dineen, this is business. You think he wouldn't use his knowledge about us against us if he could?" Happy asked.

Paige frowned, "That's not the point Happy, are we going to be okay with just doing whatever it takes to get the job?"

"Paige, we get that, but if we want this business to succeed we have got to use every advantage we can." Toby told her.

Paige shook her head, "Wait, you said the other day that you only wanted this temporarily to help Walter. Now you're talking about making it succeed which doesn't sound like a temporary thing."

"If it doesn't succeed then it won't help Walter, part of it depends on him realizing that there is a better way." Toby told her.

"Wait, you never said anything about this being temporary to me," Sylvester said.

"Guys, you're getting sidetracked. Once Walter's EQ resets he'll see there is a better way and he will come to us and whether we move forward as Scorpion or Centipede it will be with all of us together again and with all of us having a say in how we proceed. Which is what the three of us want and Walter will be more normal emotionally which is what Paige wants and Walter will be happy we're all together again. We all win." Toby told them.

* * *

"Grandpa, since it seems like you agree with me on this, why did you let the guys come over to talk with Mom about Centipede Partners?" Ralph finally asked after taking a bite from the jerky Cabe gave him.

Cabe nodded, "Well to be honest, normally I wouldn't have but Walter wants me to protect your Mom and you. I don't know what Collins is going to do and the last thing I want is for your Mom to be out there somewhere without protection. At least at my house there are the security systems and Ted is there until we get back. I figure that should be ample protection until we get back. I just don't know what I am going to do Monday when you have to go to school and she goes to their office. I can't ask Ted to follow you or her and I follow the other."

"Do you really think my Mom and I are in danger from Collins?" Ralph asked sadly.

"I honestly don't know kid, Walter is concerned and that is enough for me to worry. He's obviously got a lot of pent up anger at Walter and since he knows how much you two mean to Walter it's a possibility." Cabe told him as they rounded the last corner to his place.

Ralph stopped as he saw the guys come out of the back door at Cabe's, "Can we wait here until they are gone Grandpa? I don't want to have to talk to them.

Cabe put his hand on Ralph's shoulder, "Of course."

* * *

Ted was about to close the door after letting them out when he saw Cabe and Ralph standing down the road a little ways so he just stood there waiting. He saw they started walking again after the pickup moved off down the street in the opposite direction. "Have a good walk?" Ted asked as they got closer.

Cabe laughed, "Not bad, probably was better than if we had stayed here."

Ralph went on in as Ted stepped outside for a moment. "Remember when I told you there was something kind of hinkey with that Toby?"

Cabe's brow furrowed and he nodded.

"I didn't get to hear all of their conversations but some of what I did hear really concerns me. Whenever one of the others seemed to strongly disagree with a course of action I could hear Toby mumble something and say something else and it was like the other person did a complete turn around on the issue." Ted told him.

Cabe stared at him for several minutes, "So he somehow made them see his point with some kind of logic? What's weird about that?"

"That's just it, whenever it happened Toby's voice dropped too low to tell what was actually said and whatever was said was so short, there is no way he could have made a logical argument about whatever it was and they just gave up arguing against it with him." Ted told him.

"Huh, that is weird and a lot more concerning. Wonder if we could somehow bug Paige without her knowing it and record a conversation with him.

"It really makes me think that on video or not if Toby didn't meet up with Collins those four nights and they are putting together everything that's happening. If it wasn't for Happy backing him, I'd almost be willing to bet that he is the one that had been tagging the Garage." Ted told him.

Ted's expression changed, "What?" Cabe asked.

"You know something about the tagging; I could see it in your face just then." Ted told him.

Cabe shook his head, "No, I don't know, but talking with Walter he seems convinced it was Collins doing it. Not anyone else."

Ted nodded but Cabe could tell he wasn't completely convinced in what he told him and rather than try and complicate the lie he just let it lie there as they turned and entered the house.

Cabe looked at Paige sitting on the couch talking with Ralph and as Ted walked back to the bedroom he was sharing with Florence Cabe climbed the stairs and entered his bedroom and found Allie reading. "Hey beautiful," he said with a smile.

"Hey Handsome, enjoy your walk?" Allie sat up on the side of the bed as she closed her book.

"Yea, it was good getting a little exercise. Actually, there is something I need to tell you but I'm not supposed to discuss it. I need it to stay between us and I'll need you to act as if nothing is wrong." Cabe told her.

Allie smiled, "Of course."

Cabe walked over and turned on his little AM radio that he listened to ballgames on when it was late. He sat down beside her and turned slightly towards her and held her hands and he quietly told her everything that happened at the Garage that morning.

To say she was shocked was an understatement. Her mouth opened many times as she tried to give voice to the many thoughts that struck her as he explained. "You're really going to go along with this? Cabe, how can you?"

Cabe nodded, "Technically I don't have a choice. I have no evidence and it would just be hearsay if I tried to arrest her since Walter refuses to testify to what she confessed. I had to tell you though; I can't keep something like this from you."

Allie smiled sadly at him. "I'm so glad you trust me so much and that you don't want to keep anything hidden from me, though maybe in this case it would have been okay." She teased him.

Cabe smiled.

* * *

Ralph was enjoying sitting on the couch with his Mom holding him, "Mom, are you worried about Collins?"

Paige looked down at him, "No baby, Cabe isn't going to let him get near us."

"What about Dad?" Ralph asked.

"Well, you've asked him, Cabe's asked him. It's his decision not to be here with us." Paige told him.

"Is it really? Maybe he needs you to ask him. After all it was you who walked out on him." Ralph said with a little anger in his voice.

Paige felt stung by that and she wasn't sure how to respond. "Have you called Drew yet today?"

Ralph jumped up and turned around, "Seriously? You have no logical reason so you just make a lateral jump to a subject completely unrelated? What BS has Toby told you now?"

"Ralph! That's enough young man. Take my phone and call Drew this minute." Paige almost yelled at him.

"Have you even told Dad you are starting this company to compete against him yet?" Ralph yelled back.

"What I have and have not told Walter is not any of your business young man and if you keep this up you'll spend the rest of today in the bedroom upstairs." Paige warned him.

"Fine," Ralph ran up the stairs.

"Ralph, come back down here and get my phone to call Drew!" Paige yelled up the stairs but she just heard a door slam. She sighed and walked over and curled up on the couch.

* * *

"So what do you think the real problem is about us with Cabe and Ralph?" Sylvester asked.

"What do you think Sly? Cabe sees Walter as his son and Ralph sees him as his Dad. We walked out on him so they both are going to be upset with us." Toby told him.

"I really miss them; maybe we should rethink this whole thing. The four of us could go over to the Garage and talk to Walter. Surely he'd be willing to make some concessions by now." Sylvester told them.

"Are you kidding? Remember the conch shell fiasco? That didn't even last twelve hours. We want changes that are going to mean something. We stay the course." Toby told him.

* * *

Walter's laptop registered three new emails and when he opened them he was surprised all three were interview times for the job bids he had submitted. He smiled seeing one was for Monday the second one was for Wednesday and the third was for Tuesday next week. He smiled hoping that his reputation wouldn't become a problem for these jobs. He knew there were a number of programming services in LA but none of them was as good as he was. His thoughts turned to Paige and he spoke out loud, "Paige I wish you were here, I really miss you."

It was lunch time when he realized he hadn't had breakfast yet and he saw the box of doughnuts Cabe had brought with them on Paige's desk. He got up and walked over and saw a small assortment of doughnuts and he picked the box up and walked into the kitchen and made a half pot of coffee to drink while he ate.


	29. Chapter 29

**The story has finally eased up a little in the pace and this chapter ends up skipping about 24 hours, I'm getting the feeling it might skip a little more time in the next couple of chapters but nothing is certain until the chapter is done. To the Adventure! -Tim**

* * *

Allie came down the stairs and found Paige curled up on the couch, "Paige, are you okay?"

Paige looked up and nodded; sadness clearly on her face. "Ralph and I got into it a little after I told him to call his Dad, well Drew. At one time he really wanted Drew back in his life but since he came back he's been an almost constant disappointment to Ralph. I probably shouldn't push him to stay in touch but part of me says he needs to. You know?" She asked.

Allie nodded, "I can see that point from both sides. I think you are right though, if Drew really isn't trying then Ralph shouldn't be chasing after him. It sets a bad precedent. Are you up to giving me a hand with lunch?"

Paige smiled and got up and followed her into the kitchen.

* * *

Ralph heard a simple knock on the door, "Come in," he said sullenly.

Cabe walked in and Ralph smiled a little. "Hey kid, what's with the door slamming?"

Ralph frowned, "I'm sorry, Mom and I got into it over Dad and Drew and she told me I could spend the rest of the day up here."

Cabe chuckled as he sat down on the edge of the bed. "You want to talk about it?"

Ralph shrugged, "Not really a lot to talk about, she couldn't defend her position on not talking to Dad so she changed the subject to wanting me to call Drew. It's always I have to call him, he never calls me and of course if he has something else going on then I have to call back later. And don't even get me started on how many times our plans have to change because something came up last minute with his schedule so I can't go see him. I wish he had just stayed gone."

Cabe nodded as he put his arm around his shoulders. "I get that and I don't blame you. If you want we can both talk to your Mom about the Drew situation, hopefully we can come to an agreement on that. Now what did you to get into it about over Walter?"

"Well, first it was because she said you and I both asked him and he refused to come over and be safe and I tried to make her understand that maybe he needed her to ask him and then it was about her not telling him about Centipede Partners, what a stupid name." Ralph pretended to gag as he shoved his finger into the back of his throat.

Cabe laughed, "Yea I can agree with you on that."

* * *

Paige was use to making stuff peppers but this was the first time making them using no meat. She wondered how Ralph would deal with the difference.

"Wow, something smells good in here," Ted said with a smile on his face as he walked into the kitchen.

Paige and Allie both smiled, Ted asked, "Have you guys seen Cabe? I need to ask him about something."

"He told me he was going to talk with Ralph," Allie told him.

Ted nodded, "Umm, where's Ralph?"

Both ladies laughed, "He's supposed to be upstairs in the other bedroom." Paige told him.

Ted smiled and walked up the stairs and knocked gently on the first door, Cabe opened it and gestured for Ted to enter while asking, "What's up?"

"I was thinking of going back to Homeland and seeing if I can't pry a little money out of Carlson to get a couple of agents to watch over Allie, Paige and Ralph during the week at least during normal hours so he can go to school and Paige can go to work. I can have Florence come with me unless there is something at Scorpion for her to work on and I guess either you or I could be with her there." Ted explained.

Cabe nodded, "Well that would be a good idea, but I doubt that Carlson is going to authorize it. Allie would be safe at work they have pretty heavy security so she wouldn't need someone watching over her."

Ted smiled, "When I called Homeland for that phone trace, I had them record the conversation; I got a copy right here. That should show clear and present danger."

Cabe grinned, "Well it might work better if we go to Katharine, Carlson could still say no. He's definitely proving himself to be unreliable. And I got the perfect agents to watch Paige and Ralph too if she does."

"Hey guys, lunch time," Allie yelled up the stairs.

* * *

After lunch Ralph walked up to Paige, "Mom, can we talk for a moment please?"

Paige looked surprised but put her book down and patted the cushion next to her on the couch.

Ralph sat down and half turned towards her, "I wanted to tell you I was sorry for getting upset earlier and saying what I did. I'm just feeling so much frustration over all of this and sometimes it just comes out before I can stop it." Ralph explained. "I'm trying to understand your point of view and it's just so hard. Add in the hormones that I am experiencing and it just really amplifies the frustration. I know you are trying your best and I am not faulting you. I'm just worried, you seem like you really want things to change back between you and Dad but I keep hearing what Toby is saying knowing its hogwash and I believe Grandpa when he says if you don't tell Dad about this company you guys are forming it's going to backfire and make things between you both so much worse. And I don't want it getting worse; I want to go back to how we were. Anyway that's what I really needed to say."

Paige smiled, "Thank you Ralph, I hear what you are saying and I wish I could explain it to you, I'm not sure I can explain it to myself and what is it that Einstein said, 'If you can't explain it to a five year old then you don't understand it yourself?'"

Ralph nodded, "I think he said six years old, but basically yes."

Paige laughed lightly, "Oh Ralphy, I love you so much." She told him as she hugged him tightly.

Ralph looked thoughtful for a moment, "Is there something else on your mind sweetie?" Paige asked.

Ralph nodded, "I'm tired of always having to be the one reaching out to Drew, I know you think its important that I have a relationship with him but he hasn't been interested in me much since he got that coaching job and I just don't want to deal with him anymore."

Paige nodded and hugged him tightly, "If that's how you really feel than you don't have too. I just don't want you to regret your decision. You think about it some more until next weekend and we can discuss it some more if you don't want to continue then we'll call Drew together and tell him so, fair?"

Ralph smiled and hugged his Mom, "I love you Mom".

* * *

Cabe called Homeland asking for Katharine Cooper to call him back ASAP. It was about fifteen minutes later she called him back, "Katharine, thanks for calling back, my apologizes for disturbing you on the weekend." Cabe told her.

"No worries Cabe, what's up?" Katharine told him.

"I'm here with Ted Markus and we want you to listen to a recorded phone conversation between Collins and Walter and see if you can authorize some agents to help watch over Paige and Ralph during the day next week." Cabe told her. He gestured and Ted hit play on his phone and played the conversation for her.

After the call ended, "So Walter's convinced that Collins intends to harm them?" Katharine asked.

"I'm not sure convinced is the right word but he is concerned over his saying he wanted Walter to feel the betrayal he felt." Cabe told her.

"Okay Cabe, I will authorize two agents, that is the best I can do with Carlson being the way he is. I'll have a couple of agents assigned." Katharine promised.

"Katharine, if it isn't too much to ask, I have a couple of agents in mind. I can reach out to them and I'm sure they'd be happy to help." Cabe told her.

"That's fine, have them check in with Ted and he can submit it to me Monday." Katharine told him.

"Thanks Katharine, have a great rest of your weekend." Cabe said as they hung up. "That was easier then I thought it would be." Cabe said looking at Ted.

Cabe hit his contacts and pressed dial, "Hey Nick, hold on a second," he hit hold and then pulled up another contact and hit dial, "Hey Simone, hang on a second." He hit conference, "Okay, Nick, Simone, we got permission for you both to help protect a couple of people. If you don't mind coming to my house tomorrow afternoon, we can introduce you guys to whom you'll be protecting. Yea, 2 PM sounds good, see you both then."

Cabe broke out a lot of the games he'd kept from when his daughter was alive, games that brought tears to his eyes. He hadn't had them out since he moved into this place. Allie saw his eyes were teary but saw the smile on his face as he brought them out and into the kitchen. "I thought maybe if everyone wanted, we could socialize a little together and play a game or two."

They all came out to the kitchen and examined all the games, Scrabble was quickly sidelined, no one liked to play a game like that with a genius and they all finally settled on Sorry.

* * *

Sunday afternoon a few minutes before 2 PM Cabe saw a car pull up in back of his house and Simone and Nick exited and then he saw another man get out and he just smiled. He quickly walked into the kitchen and turned off the alarm and opened the door grinning from ear to ear. He exclaimed, "Rusty, you old horse trader!" Rusty laughed and stepped up and gave his old friend a hug. "Cabe I swear you get uglier every time I see you." Rusty teased him.

Cabe laughed, "Simone," he greeted her as they embraced. "Nick, are you able to shave yet?" Cabe teased him.

"Better than you old man," Nick shot back as they hugged.

"Come on in guys," Cabe said closing the backdoor and resetting the alarm.

Cabe pointed to Ted, "Have you guys met before? This is agent Ted Markus, he's been a friend since I joined Homeland and he's been on point for what has been happening around my son. Ted these are my oldest friends from the Corps, Rusty was our commanding officer, Simone was our munitions expert and Nick was the baby we picked up in some field one day."

Rusty and Simone laughed and even Nick laughed, "That wasn't bad Cabe, maybe you do still have a few brain cells left."

Cabe laughed.

"Good to meet you Ted, don't mind me, I just came over to touch bases with this dinosaur behind me." Rusty shook his hand.

"Let's go meet Paige and Ralph and we can discuss this some more privately." Cabe told them.

They walked into the living room and found Paige and Ralph waiting expectantly. "Paige, Ralph, these are some of my oldest friends, not counting Nick here, he's barely out of diapers." Cabe told them as Nick shot him a grin. "This is Rusty and Simone. Simone is going to be taking you to school and bringing you back here every day Ralph. She'll be outside your classroom all day, you know what Collins is capable of and if anything happens you get to her first and she will safeguard you, understand?"

Ralph nodded as he reached out a hand and Simone smiled and shook his hand.

"Paige this young puppy is young but he knows what he is doing, he'll take you to and from your office or wherever you have to go. He'll afford you all the privacy he can but he won't put up with any nonsense so make sure you tell Toby to mind his P's & Q's or Nick might just put him through a wall, on second thought, don't tell him and just get me some pictures from when he does." Cabe told her with a smile.

"It's nice to meet you Nick," Paige extended her hand with a smile.

Nick returned the smile and shook her hand, "It's my pleasure."

Cabe smacked him on the back of his head, "Down boy, haven't you gotten him house broken yet Simone?"

Simone and Rusty laughed.

"Ted and I are going to brief them for a short bit and then you guys can talk with each other and get to know each other a bit, protectees and their protectors need to have a good understanding of each other. One thing to understand guys since neither of you have ever had to experience this, what you do or say is kept in the strictest confidence. Their job isn't to report back what you do or say, it's to keep you safe and I want you to understand I'd trust them with my soul so you can trust them too." Cabe finished and to have some privacy from Paige and Ralph, Cabe led them back outside so they could talk without being overheard.

* * *

Paige saw Ralph standing at the window on the other side of the living room looking out back. "Ralphy, what are you doing?" She asked him.

Without turning his head, "Lip reading what they are saying."

"Ralphy," Paige exclaimed, "Get away from that window this minute, that's very rude."

Allie and Florence were smiling at Ralph's cleverness.

"Don't you want to know what they were saying?" Ralph asked her.

"No, yes, no, get away from there." Paige was flustered.

* * *

Ted opened a file folder he brought out of the house with them. "This is the scumbag in question, Mark Collins; I've got images in here with out the beard, without glasses, different color hair so on and so forth."

They each took turns looking the photos over, even taking pictures with their phones to reference later. "Ralph's school has been notified about what is going on and that you would be on premise. They didn't like the fact that you would be armed Simone but I told them that was just tough." Cabe told her.

Simone just grinned.

"One thing to remember guys, Collins is a high order genius, arguably the seventh highest in the world today. He's cleaver, devious and his plots have plots as the people who know him would put it." Ted told them.

"I was only half kidding about you putting Toby through a wall Nick, there is something seriously off about him but we just can't figure it out yet." Cabe told him.

"Speaking of that," Ted interjected, "If you can, try and record any conversations he has with the others. I'd love to hear exactly what he is saying especially if it's a conflict. I don't care what the others say so much, but yesterday when they were here whenever one of the others would disagree with him his voice would drop to where I couldn't hear it, he'd say something and they would just agree to whatever he was saying."

"Copy that, scumbag Dr into a wall and try to record any disagreements." Nick said.

"Now, what are you really doing here Rusty?" Cabe asked.

Rusty smiled, "Well after Simone told me you wanted them on this detail I was a little hurt you didn't ask me."

Cabe laughed, "Well I would have asked you too but Carlson is giving us all kinds of grief and I was only able to get Katharine to authorize two agents so I don't have the funds to cover you."

Rusty shrugged, "I've got personal and vacation days I can take. What do you need?"

Cabe smiled, "Well if you really are interested you could escort Florence to and from Scorpion HQ and watch out over Walter and her during the day."

"Sounds good to me, whose Florence and Walter?" Rusty asked.

Cabe laughed, "We can introduce you to Florence now and Walter is at Scorpion now."

Rusty's brow lifted, "Why's he there unprotected now?"

"Long story short, Paige dumped him and walked out on him. He believes if he had come here to be protected as well she would refuse to be here so he's just staying there." Cabe told him.

Rusty rolled his eyes, "Oh great, and imbecile, I hate protecting imbeciles."

Cabe laughed, "Actually my son's a genius, fifth highest IQ ever measured after my grandson in there."


	30. Chapter 30

Paige sat in the living room talking with Nick while Ralph and Simone had gone to the bedroom upstairs and Rusty sat with Florence in the downstairs bedroom talking and going over everything expected of protectees and protectors. Allie and Cabe occupied themselves with fixing dinner for all of them.

Ralph got along well with Simone; while not a genius on his level she had a quick mind and a genuine interest in his well being and a quick wit that instilled confidence and security in him dispelling any concerns over Collins.

Paige found out that Nick was just a year younger than Cabe, no where near as young as Cabe liked to tease but she enjoyed their conversation especially learning more about Cabe as a younger man in the Marines.

Florence was a little leery about Rusty, she could tell he almost had a sixth sense about situations and he kept probing her about the whole situation that has been going on around the Garage. She was definitely worried that he might figure out she had something to do with it. Ted she knew was blinded a little by his attraction with her so while she wasn't comfortable keeping it a secret from him she didn't worry that he might figure out her role in it like she felt Rusty would if she stayed around him too long.

* * *

Ralph was lying on the couch almost on the verge of sleep when he realized he hadn't email Walter in two days and he sat up and pulled his laptop over and opened his email and found he had received an email the day before from Walter. He was upset with himself for having forgotten and he opened the email.

"Good evening Ralph,

I trust your Saturday has been a good day. Mine was okay; I got three interviews to go on this week and next for possible programming jobs. I must be crazy to complicate all the work I have to do with more work but I need something to distract me I guess.

I just wanted to touch base with you since I hadn't heard from you, don't worry about Collins, we're getting closer to catching him.

I love you and your Mom so much.

Honored to be your Dad,

Walter"

"Good evening Dad,

I am so sorry, I didn't write yesterday. Grandpa and Allie have been so entertaining I kind of lost track of time and completely forgot. Please don't be disappointed in me for that.

We had a really good Saturday, we played games all afternoon and evening, no one wanted to play against me in Scrabble so we play games that relied on pseudo random chance and decisions to win. Sorry was both fun and frustrating.

I talked with Mom today and she wants me to think on it some more this week and if I still don't want to next weekend I won't have to keep trying with Drew anymore. I told her I was tired of always being the one to reach out to him and having my visitation with him changed all the time because something always comes up.

Grandpa and I really wish you would go ahead and come stay with us here for safety if nothing else. Mom swears its okay with her if you do. Some of Grandpa's old Marine friends who are in Homeland now are going to be watching after Mom and me during the week so I can still go to school.

Your son,

Ralph"

Ralph had originally included so his Mom could go to work at Centipede Partners but just before he clicked send he edited it out. He really wanted to tell Walter about it but he didn't want to go against what his Mom had told him about not discussing anything about Centipede Partners with Walter.

* * *

Walter had spent most of the day just watching his algorithm slowly work; he'd almost fell asleep from the sheer boredom. So he took up walking around the Garage checking out every little nook and cranny. He found several hats that Toby had hidden throughout the Garage and he gathered them all and threw them into the trash. He'd spent some time in his bedroom looking at Ralph's drawing and the portrait of them together he had enlarged before walking back down stairs. He didn't believe in fate or karma but sometimes he wondered if it wasn't his fate to live out his life alone as some kind of karma effect for writing the software that was used and killed all those innocent lives because he had put more effort into speeding up delivery instead of ensuring accuracy. Hadn't he redeemed himself for all those deaths? Hadn't he helped to save many hundreds of times those numbers? His laptop registered a new email but not wanting to slow down the algorithm he pulled out the tablet that had been Paige's and logged into the email server and read Ralph's email.

Walter smiled as he replied to his email.

"Dear Ralph,

I won't ever be disappointed in you I promise. It's okay that you had a good time yesterday and didn't think to email me.

I'm so grateful that Cabe has gotten some people to help watch over you so you can still attend school. Collins isn't really that brave to actually try something in front of that many people but when it comes to you and your Mom it's better to be over cautious in my opinion.

I'll be okay here; maybe one day your Mom won't be as mad at me and will want me to come around, when that day comes she only has to tell me so. Until then I am so grateful to be able to continue talking to you here.

I'm so sorry that Drew has been hurting you that way. I wish I could take that pain away from you. Whatever you chose to do I support you.

Your Dad forever,

Walter"

* * *

Monday morning was a little hectic getting five adults and a teenager up and ready for their day but somehow they managed to sit down for breakfast just before Rusty, Simone and Nick arrived to begin their first day under protection. Cabe took Allie to work while Ted went straight to Homeland to brief Katharine, the others hung out for a short while before they had to leave.

* * *

Walter's eyes were showing signs that he wasn't sleeping again when Florence and Rusty entered the Garage. Florence introduced them and Rusty sat down to explain the procedures to Walter. After he had answered all of Walter's questions Rusty excused himself so he could examine the Garage and the area outside the building.

* * *

Simone and Ralph stopped in the principle's office as she had requested and they had a short conversation concerning risks and potential issues.

* * *

When they arrived at Centipede Partner's office Nick left Paige locked in his SUV while he examined the outer area and then moved into the building and made sure there was nothing and no one to endanger Paige. He returned to the SUV and unlocked and opened her door and escorted her inside. Paige found all the office furniture had been delivered and set up. The phones were hooked up and working, she turned on her computer and then walked around checking the other areas. Everything was as they had discussed and she returned to her office.

* * *

After examining the outside of the Garage Rusty made his way to the roof. He walked around the entire roof looking out over everything. Finally satisfied Rusty returned to the first level of the Garage and Walter offered him a cup of coffee. Walter told Rusty and Florence there was an interview for a job bid later that afternoon they'd have to leave for by 1 PM to make it there. Since there wasn't anything before that Florence asked if it was okay if she went to work in her lab for a while. Walter nodded, "Rusty you can go with Florence to keep her safe."

"No Walter, you're more at risk than I am. Rusty should stay here with you." Florence told him.

Walter shook his head, "You forget, he wants me to suffer, that makes it more likely he will try something against you than me. Rusty, go with her."

Rusty laughed, "Will do."

* * *

Happy pulled her truck into a parking spot next to the SUV in front of their office and the three team members exited the pick up and looked up to the office and saw lights were on and they figured Cabe was there with Paige. They were a little shocked when Paige introduced them to Nick. Sylvester told Paige they had an appointment for their first job bid at 1 PM so they'd have to leave around noon to be there on time.

Toby and Paige almost immediately got into a disagreement when she told them she wanted to tell Walter the truth about them forming Centipede Partners and Toby kept telling her she couldn't and finally he got tired of the disagreement and he got up in Paige's face and whispered "Beetlejuice, you will not tell Walter about us." Nick reacted instantly and grabbed Toby's arm twisting it behind his back and put him up hard against the wall.

Paige blinked and jumped back.

"I already explained procedure to you guys, now you do not get within ten feet of Paige. This is your one reminder. Next time you can either get dental work or visit the ER. Understand?" Nick told him.

Toby nodded quickly.

"What the hell Waitress, call your attack dog off my husband," Happy yelled.

"Then keep your husband on a leash," Nick told her releasing him on the opposite side of him from Paige.

* * *

Cabe walked into the Garage a little after noon, "Hey Walter, where's Rusty?"

Walter looked up and smiled and pointed towards the back wall, "He's watching over Florence. I didn't have anything for her to do so she went to work on something. I do have a bid interview I'll need to leave by 1 PM if you don't mind taking me?"

Cabe nodded "Sounds good, let me go check in with Rusty and I'll be back over."

Cabe knocked on Florence's door and Rusty opened the door and smiled seeing Cabe, "Hey Cabe, come on in. I've been getting an education over here."

Cabe laughed as he stepped in and Rusty shut and locked the door. "Hey Florence," Cabe greeted her.

"Hey Cabe," Florence replied without looking up as she carefully mixed some chemicals. "You think Walter would be okay if I didn't go to that job bid today?"

Cabe nodded, "I don't see why not, I'll ask when I go back over in a minute I just wanted to check in on you guys." He looked at Rusty, "How's everything looking to you?"

Rusty smiled, "Everything seems fairly normal, I was a little suspicious of the homeless guy but Florence told me he was a regular named Freddie."

Cabe nodded, "Freddie's a pretty good guy, the kids try and help him out as much as he'll let them. If you want to stay here with Florence I'll take Walter to that job bid."

"Sounds good to me, I just wish I had brought a book to read with me." Rusty told him.

Cabe laughed, "I think I got a couple of Zane Grey books next door if you'd like."

"Naw, I never got into that western stuff like you did. Thanks though." Rusty said.

Florence looked over as Cabe was about to leave, "Hey Cabe, did you notice Walter's eyes? I thought you should know I don't think he is sleeping again."

Cabe's smile turned into a scowl as he quickly left.

He moved quickly into the Garage and walked right over and bent over Walter's desk putting his hands on the edge and stared at Walter's face.

Walter looked at him puzzled, "What?"

"Are you wearing some kind of concealer around your eyes?" Cabe demanded.

Walter sighed, "I doubt the interviewer would be interested in hiring me if they saw dark circles around my eyes."

Cabe shook his head, "When we get back you are taking some of those pills and going to sleep."

* * *

Paige sat in the outer office waiting for them to call the team in for the interview. Her stomach was flip flopping, she hadn't been this nervous in a long time. "Ms Dineen are you okay? Anything I can do for you?" Nick asked.

Paige smiled weakly and shook her head no.

The secretary got up and walked over and opened the door and called Centipede Partners.

Paige took a deep breath and got up and walked into the office with the others.

* * *

Walter and Cabe walked into the lobby and over to the elevators and pressed up and stood waiting.

* * *

Paige all but ran from the office, she'd fought with her nerves the entire time in the presentation and when it was over she had to get out as fast as she could. Nick was quick to follow as she flew past the elevators and turned down the hallway and into the women's bathroom. Toby and Sylvester followed and entered the men's while Happy at Nick's request went in to check on Paige.

* * *

The elevator door opened and Cabe and Walter stepped off and turned and walked down and into the president's outer office.

* * *

Happy was grimacing as she listened to Paige as she got sick over and over. "You okay in there Waitress?"

"Yes, give me a minute." Paige told her before getting sick again.

Happy decided she couldn't take it anymore and exited back into the hallway. She looked at Nick, "She's alone in there."

Nick just nodded when Toby and Sylvester joined them in the hallway. It was probably another five minutes before Paige emerged from the restroom. Nick looked at her concerned, "You sure you are okay Ms Dineen?"

Paige smiled, "Just nerves, thanks. And you are welcome to call me Paige."

Nick smiled and shook his head, "It would be inappropriate for me to address a protectee by their first name."

They all walked to the elevator and left to go back to their office.

* * *

Walter sat watching the president going over his list of references and all the jobs he had taken care of over the years, "As you can see Ms Walker, Scorpion 2.0 is highly skilled and we are much more streamline and efficient version of ourselves and I can assure you that we'll be quick and professional, you won't have any regrets hiring us, Ms Walker."

Walter watched as she nodded her head, "I'll tell you Mr. O'Brien I am quite impressed with your record, everyone speaks very highly of you. Though most of them do say they really recommend that you have a Ms Dineen helping you as you have some impulse control issues that can cause problems with others. Is this true? Will she be with you if we award you this contract?"

Walter sighed, "I have to be truthful with you Ms Walker the old me use to butt heads with people who have normal EQs but thanks to a lot of hard work on Ms Dineen's part I have grown a lot and I am able to relate better to people like that. While she is no longer with Scorpion 2.0 I can assure you I can do this job efficiently and very accurately and you won't regret your choice."

Ms Walker nodded her head, "Okay Mr. O'Brien I can't promise you anything right now as I still have a few more interviews but I do promise to give you a fair shake at the job, okay?"

Walter smiled as he stood up, "I can't ask for anything more than that, thank you for your time Ms. Walker."

She smiled and extended her hand and Walter shook it before leaving the office.

As Cabe started the SUV, "Walter, I got to give you credit for that, you really did a great job back there. I'm really proud of you. The old you would have flown off the handle."

Walter gave him a half smile, "Thanks Cabe."


	31. Chapter 31

**Good day dear readers! I believe there is just one more chapter after this one and then we will be at the end of Scorpion 4x22 where Walter finds out about Centipede Partners and then I will start posting the story that has been running parallel to this one. I'm not sure how long that story will be but if things go how I believe it will I will be coming back to work on this one some more so I won't mark it complete until then. **

**According to the site I have now written just over a quarter of a million words for my Scorpion stories since Aug 19! That's really amazing to me. It certainly has been a true adventure for me. To the Adventure! -Tim**

* * *

Toby stayed as far away from Paige and Nick as he could the rest of the day. His arm still hurt from Nick manhandling him into the wall and it seemed like Nick had actually enjoyed it.

* * *

Walter sat at his desk brooding, wondering how he could ever change his image, especially with people like Carlson dogging his every step encouraging others to not give him a chance. He'd worked so hard mentally this past week, trying desperately to claw his way back from the darkness he fell into when everyone had left him, struggling against the professional rejections as well, enduring the hunger and persevering through the weakness brought on by the insomnia. Only to fall right back into the insomnia brought on by yet another 'friend' who turned out to have at least until a few days ago been working on behalf of Collins. The only constants in his life were Cabe and Ralph and he clung to them, trying to somehow anchor his ever sinking ship and while he was free to let lose of the weakening barriers around Cabe, he had to maintain a positive face to Ralph. He knew if he was to let slip how bad things were Ralph would suffer more than what Walter believed he was already and Walter would rather die than allow that to happen.

He took the sleep medicine in front of Cabe as soon as they got back from the interview but it had no effect so he had taken a second dose and so far he still felt no effect and he was contemplating taking a third dose. Rusty and Florence had stopped in briefly to let him know they were headed to Cabe's and to see if there was anything they could do for him. He just thanked them and wished them a good evening.

* * *

Ralph found he was a little more popular today, the kids all found it exciting and pretty cool that Ralph had a bodyguard.

* * *

Paige had felt it was kind of annoying to have Nick around her all day but the fact that Toby was keeping his distance because of him actually made her feel better and her nervousness had finally settled. She had been rather surprised that on their very first day she had gotten five phone calls for Centipede Partners to put in bids on various jobs. Finally she decided it was time to call it a day and walked out of her office after switching the phones to their voicemail system. She was shocked to see the guys had already left for the day and not one of them bothered to say anything to her. She sighed and Nick looked at her, "Everything okay?"

Paige gave him a little smile and nodded, "Just surprised everyone left without saying anything."

Nick nodded, "Are you ready to head back to Cabe's?"

She nodded and Nick held the outer door open for her and stood there as she activated the alarm and then stepped out and he locked the door and handed her keys back to her. Nick opened her door and waited until she got in and then locked it and closed the door. Paige's phone rang and she saw it was Toby and she sighed, "Hey Toby."

"Beetlejuice," Toby said," Tell Nick you want to go to your place and you don't want a protective detail anymore." Toby cleared his throat, "Sorry, we forgot to tell you we were leaving earlier, have a good night."

"Oh, yea, okay, have a good night then Toby." Paige answered with a frown.

Nick looked back, "Is everything okay Ms Dineen?"

Paige continued to frown, "You know Nick, I don't want to go back to Cabe's, I want you to take me to my place. And I don't think I need a protective detail anymore, but I really thank you for today."

Nick looked puzzled, "Are you sure? What changed your mind? I'm really not sure that's a good idea Ms Dineen."

Paige nodded, "Why I changed my mind isn't relative." Paige continued to frown, 'Why did I change my mind?' She thought to herself.

Nick nodded, "You're right, what's your address?"

Paige looked at him and gave him her address.

* * *

Cabe and Ted saw Rusty pull in out back and they walked out to greet him and Florence. Rusty looked around, "Nick and Simone aren't here yet?"

Ted embraced Florence, he had been disappointed he had been kept at Homeland all day and wasn't able to go meet up with her for lunch. They turned and walked into the house together.

Cabe shook his head, "Paige might have worked over and Ralph had class at Caltech tonight. I was going to head over there and relieve her so she could go home."

Rusty shook his head, "I'll go, you enjoy your time with Allie."

Cabe smiled and then frowned as a Homeland car pulled onto the side street that ran by his backyard. He stared as it pulled into his yard. Rusty turned to look as they both saw Carlson climb out of the back. "Well, well, what do we have here? You just can't help yourself can you Gallo? You can't prove a case so you run to Cooper to green light a detail to protect some people who aren't even under threat."

"I didn't run to anyone, we let her listen to the phone call and she decided that a detail for Paige and Ralph was warranted." Cabe said back with heat.

"And you Russell, taking time off for what? Well this ends here. Your detail Gallo is terminated." Carlson told him.

"That's fine, I am sure Nick and Simone will be happy to take time off and watch over them on their own time." Rusty told him.

Carlson laughed, "Yea, I think not. Your vacation is cancelled and all three of you have a flight to catch tonight. You have a case to work in Alaska." Carlson held out a folder to Rusty and Rusty glared at him and took the folder and examined the case documents.

"Are you serious? You want us to investigate Bigfoot sightings?" Rusty almost yelled.

"I am serious and if I don't have your preliminary report by noon tomorrow I'll be sure to process each of you for termination before the end of the day tomorrow." Carlson grinned at him, "So call your people, your plane leaves in two hours."

"You're going to regret this Carlson," Rusty warned him.

Carlson laughed as he got back in his car. Cabe and Rusty watched as the driver backed the car up and left the way they'd come.

"Thanks so much for all your help Rusty, I better go let Allie know what is going on and go relieve Simone so she can get whatever she needs and get to the airport." Cabe reached out his hand.

Rusty nodded as he shook his hand, "I'm sorry Cabe, Carlson might have won this battle but he's going to lose the war I promise you Cabe."

Cabe smiled as he watched Rusty get in his SUV and leave. He sighed and turned and entered his house. "Where's Rusty?" Allie asked.

Cabe shook his head, "Carlson has disbanded the protective detail and he's having Rusty, Nick and Simone sent to Alaska to investigate a Bigfoot sighting."

"Oh Cabe, what are you going to do?" Allie asked.

"Well I got to tell Ted and then I'll have to go relieve Simone so she can go get ready to leave." Cabe told her.

Ted was furious at the news but there just wasn't anything else he could do. He thought about taking some time off but Cabe told him if he did, he'd probably be sent someplace unpleasant on a stupid mission. Florence quickly talked him out of doing anything that would get him sent away.

* * *

When Cabe relieved Simone he found out that Paige had gone back to her place instead of going to Cabe's and he quickly pulled out his phone and called her. "Hey Cabe," Paige answered the phone.

"Don't hey Cabe me after pulling a stunt like this. Why didn't you go back to my place?" Cabe demanded.

"Cabe I don't have to explain myself or my decisions to you. If I want to be in my own home then I am going to be." Paige told him.

"Kid, don't you understand how dangerous this possibly is? Carlson is definitely up to something; he just cancelled the protective detail and sent my friends to Alaska to investigate a Bigfoot sighting." Cabe told her.

"I'm sorry they have to go there for something like that, but doesn't that suggest to you that I'm right? That there really isn't that big of a threat?" Paige asked.

They argued back and forth for a long time, it wasn't until Ralph's class started exiting the lecture hall that they finally stopped. Paige finally told him she'd meet them at his place and collect their things and they would go home after that.

Toby pulled up to Paige's shortly after she left and was furious when she didn't answer the door. He'd come over to re-implant some of the conditioning he'd placed on her over a week ago to ensure she didn't break it. But now it looked like she had so he would have to speak with her privately in her office tomorrow and re-hypnotize her.

* * *

When Paige showed up at Cabe's Allie managed to talk her into eating with them before going home. Since the dinner was already made she reluctantly agreed and then with Ralph objecting they left to go home after eating.

Cabe watched as Paige drove away and he sighed as he turned to go back into the house he saw Ted standing there. "Hey, Nick stopped by while you was at Caltech and he said that Paige and Toby only got into one disagreement while they were together today. He said that Toby stepped right up to Paige in violation of the protection rules he told them about and while he reacted instantly he heard him whisper something followed by 'you will not tell Walter about us.' He apologized that he wasn't able to hear it all. But said he had put the fear of God into him over it."

"I knew Toby was messing with her head over this, damn it." Cabe fumed.

"I was thinking, right now Toby seems more of a threat than Collins, what if you and I split up the day and take turns watching over Paige at their office?" Ted asked.

Cabe thought that over, "You know, that's not bad and even if she says she doesn't want protection we can just tell her it's out of her control that we are watching the whole team."

"I know I have to be at Homeland early so if you can be there until noon, I could relieve you and stay there the rest of the afternoon." Ted told him.

Cabe smiled, "I can make that work, provided Carlson doesn't do something else."

* * *

Ralph slammed his bedroom door after they entered their home and Paige just sighed, 'Why can't he see this is for the best?' Paige thought to herself.

Ralph's paper for Caltech was so simple he finished it within twenty minutes. He pulled out his laptop and loaded his email program and clicked on Walter's name and selected compose.

"Good evening Dad,

Today was very interesting. Grandpa's friend Simone is really cool and all the kids were impressed she was there to watch over me. Grandpa and Mom got into it over the phone while I was in class at Caltech. Mom decided there wasn't enough of a risk and is refusing protective services and she made me come back home with her. I just don't understand Dad, this morning she was so grateful for everything Grandpa was doing and now this evening we're here. Does this have anything to do with her being mad at you? I really enjoyed us staying at Grandpa's, I didn't even mind sleeping on his couch, it at least kind of reminded me of sleeping in the loft with you and Mom across the hall from me. Anyway I am enclosing my paper for my class tonight I've got another one I'll do tomorrow and send you. Love you Dad.

Your son,

Ralph"

* * *

Walter sat in the dark either staring out into the night sky through the windows or watching the counter on his algorithm continuing to count as it repaired section after section of the file. He saw the email flag pop on his laptop and he pulled the tablet over and logged into the server and read Ralph's email and became angry, as low risk as it could be it was so foolish of Paige to do this. He picked up his phone and called Paige.

* * *

Paige had stripped down to just her panties as soon as she entered her bedroom and put on one of Walter's shirts and sprayed a little of his cologne on it and then slipped on a pair of his socks and curled up in the recliner. Her phone rang and at first she started to ignore it, she didn't want to talk to Cabe or Toby and she was sure that was who it was but she finally looked at it on the second ring and saw 'Walter'. Her heart skipped a beat and as she went to hit answer she once again heard Toby's voice and she hit decline while cursing Toby's name.

* * *

Walter sighed as he realized she declined his call again and he heard her voicemail message and he calmed himself as he waited for the beep. "Hey Paige, its Walter, I just called because I am a little concerned after getting Ralph's email. I know you don't want anything to do with me but I really hope that you aren't refusing the protection because of that. I'm trying to give you all the space you seem to want from me but even if the risk to Ralph and you by Collins is low, I'm still concerned he could try to strike at you guys to hurt me more. Anyway, please reconsider the protection. Just call Cabe and let him know if you do. I, umm, I'm sure you don't want anything to do with me anymore and you probably don't want to hear this but, I really truly miss you, need you and I'm still so much in love you it really hurts me not to have you close by. I am so sorry I chose to not tell you about going to the lecture with Florence."

* * *

Paige watched her phone waiting, hoping that Walter would leave her a voicemail and she almost squeaked with joy when she saw the voicemail icon pop up and her phone vibrated. She quickly called her voicemail and entered her password and played the new message. As his voice entered her ears she smiled and her eyes closed. As she listened she could hear the underlying sorrow in his voice and as he came to the end she could hear the sincerity of his plea for her to reconsider the protection and then tears cascaded down her cheeks when he talked about her not wanting anything to do with him or to hear what he said next but nothing was further from the truth hearing him speak how he loved her, how he needed and missed her warmed her heart, she knew he loved Ralph but to hear him just speak about loving and missing her in the message brought real joy to her heart. How many times had she wondered if his love for her was contingent upon Ralph being her son, she'd always thought the others were that way and while she would never deny her son anything just hearing him wanting her meant so much to her. She fell asleep happily for the first time since that night after that.


	32. Chapter 32

**Good day dear readers, today is the last chapter in this story line until the new story is finished. This chapter is a little longer. Keep an eye out tomorrow for 'Betray Me Once, Shame On You'.**

* * *

Paige arrived at their office and was surprised to see Cabe standing next to his SUV in the parking lot but it still brought a smile to her face. "Good morning Cabe," she said with a smile as she got out of her car.

Cabe smiled back, "Good morning kid. How are you?"

Paige walked over and gave him a hug, "Sorry for arguing with you last night. I know you were only concerned about Ralph and my safety."

"I'm always going to be concerned about you guys." Cabe told her as they walked up to the entrance of their office.

Paige unlocked the door and stepped in and turned off the security system. "What brings you by today?" She asked still smiling.

"Well, we advised Katharine that you didn't want to continue protective services but she said in her opinion Collins's threat was too great to risk a valuable government asset. So I am here until Ted can relieve me." Cabe told her.

Paige frowned "What do you mean government asset?"

Cabe smiled, "Remember the paperwork you signed at Scorpion?" She thought back and nodded. "Well as it turns out that even though you aren't with Scorpion anymore you are still bound by that paperwork to supply support to Scorpion in any governmental cases."

Paige's mouth dropped open, "Are you serious? I still have to assist Walter even if I don't want to be around him?" Cabe nodded. "What about the others?" She asked in a small voice.

Cabe shook his head, "Homeland really only wanted Walter but while the others were working with him we accepted them. Now that they aren't Homeland doesn't feel like it would be in the best interest to maintain a relationship with them." Cabe knew he was lying his ass off but he wanted to sell it so she didn't kick up too much of a fuss and get Carlson involved any further.

Paige sighed but nodded her head, "Well let me give you the tour."

* * *

Ted dropped Florence off at the Garage and he advised Walter and her to stay in the Garage with the doors locked. He'd swing by around 11 am with lunch.

"Were you able to get any sleep last night Walter?" Florence asked already knowing the answer looking at his eyes.

Walter shook his head no and Florence sighed. She realized that just as he started sleeping again his discovery of her betrayal had caused this new relapse.

There was a knock on the door and Florence walked over and called out, "Who is it?"

"It's Freddie," she heard from the other side and she smiled as she opened the door.

"Good morning Freddie," she greeted him.

"Freddie smiled, "Good morning Florence, do you guys have anything to eat for me?"

Florence stepped back, "Come on in and let me check and see what we got."

Freddie stepped in and waved at Walter who waved back. Florence walked over, "Is it okay to get some food for Freddie?"

Walter nodded.

Florence walked into the kitchen as Freddie stepped up to Walter's desk, "Whoa boss, you aren't looking too good. You need to get some sleep."

Walter smiled, "Working on it Freddie."

"Hey Freddie, there is nothing already made so it will take me a few minutes. Would you like some eggs and toast?" Florence called out to him.

Freddie smiled, "That sounds good to me." He looked at Walter, "Okay if I use the head Walter?"

Walter nodded his head.

"Walter do you want me to fix you some eggs too?" Florence asked.

"No thanks Florence; maybe bring me a couple of those shakes please." Walter asked.

* * *

Toby became upset as they pulled into the parking lot and seeing a Homeland SUV in front of the office. "What's the matter?" Sylvester asked.

Toby looked at him, "Are you kidding? Yesterday that jerk hurt my arm, it still hurts."

"Well, keep your distance from Paige and you won't have to worry about that." Sylvester told him.

Toby just glared at him as they got out of the truck.

All three of them were shocked to see Cabe standing inside next to Paige's office door.

As they walked in Paige stepped out, "Morning guys, Happy, I got a job bid request that came in last night. I need you to look it over and give me your estimate of time and man hours it will take to complete it so I can submit the form." She handed a folder to her and Happy walked off to her office as Paige then looked at Sylvester, "I've also got four programming jobs I need you to look over and give me your ideas on if you can do them and how long it will take. Also keep in mind we got these other three job bid interviews."

Sylvester took the folders she handed him and walked over to his desk in the corner of the hallway.

Toby looked at her, "I need to speak with you, alone." Paige walked into her office and sat down at her desk and Toby walked in and tried to close the door but Cabe was already walking through the doorway. "Uh, maybe you aren't cognizant of term alone but that doesn't include you in the conversation."

Cabe looked at him, "This is a protection detail, there is no alone with Ms Dineen. Nothing you say will be repeated."

Toby looked at Paige and gestured at Cabe, "Sorry Toby, its protocol."

"But you said you were going to reject the protection detail." Toby told her.

Paige frowned; she couldn't recall telling Toby or anyone else she was going to do that. She wasn't even sure why she told Nick that last night. "Homeland overrode my decision to terminate protection. Since I am still bound by contract to support Walter in any government mission I have to be protected."

Toby threw his hands up and walked out of her office and went over to his couch and put on his headset and began listening to music.

Cabe started to step out of Paige's office, "Cabe, you know you can call me Paige right? Ms Dineen sounds so cold and unfeeling from you."

Cabe smiled, "Ms Dineen, I'd wrap my arms around you and hug you as tightly as I could and call you sweetheart, but it's against the rules."

Paige smiled as tears welled up in her eyes as he took up his post on the outside of her office. Paige picked up her phone and hit intercom, "Guys, thirty minute warning we'll have to leave for that job interview."

Paige's phone alarm went off to announce it was time to leave and she switched the phones to voicemail and stood up and got her purse and walked out into the hallway and the guys were standing out on the balcony. She smiled at Cabe and they set the alarm and stepped outside and locked the door.

"Let me guess, Paige has to ride with you and she's the only one allowed to ride with you." Toby said sarcastically to Cabe.

Cabe grinned, "You're learning."

Toby grumbled and looked at Paige, "You don't really need me right? It's a programming bid. Sylvester can handle any of the questions you can't."

Paige looked at him and shrugged her shoulders, "I don't see a need for you to be there if you want to stay here."

"I just don't want to be packed into the truck." Toby told her as he unlocked the door and walked inside and turned the alarm off.

All four of them just stared after him not quite believing what they heard.

* * *

Paige was surprised during the interview, the president of the company asked zero questions concerning the job but was already handing them the contract for their signature. "Umm Mr. Moore, while I am grateful I'm puzzled by you awarding us this contract already."

Mr. Moore smiled, "Your Company has been highly recommended by the Director of Homeland."

All four of them were shocked but Paige took the contract and promised to have it back to him by the deadline after their lawyer looked it over.

* * *

"Cabe, isn't it a little odd for the director of Homeland to do something like this?" Paige asked him as they got into his SUV.

"It is damn peculiar that is for sure. But unless there is proof of something illegal there isn't anything that could be done about it." Cabe told her. "You guys have a lawyer already?" He asked.

Paige smiled, "The same one we had as soon as I started working at Scorpion. The one I made up to get companies to pay their bills quicker."

Cabe laughed as he pulled out of the parking lot.

* * *

Ted was there when they got back to the office and Cabe quickly and quietly let him know that Toby was trying to get Paige alone to talk to her already. Ted nodded and told him he'd stay on top of it.

Paige couldn't believe that Toby didn't even bother to take the phones back off of voicemail while they were gone and she had three voicemails to return and eight new faxes with job bid requests. At Scorpion they had maybe four a week and here they were on their second official day open and they were quickly being overwhelmed. She ended up working over an hour just to finish reading the contract Mr. Moore had given them. She was grateful for her neighbor being able to pick up Ralph in the evenings and watch over him until she got home.

Ted had noticed that Toby was pretty irritated by the time he left with Happy and Sylvester. He'd tried twice after Cabe left to get Paige alone but each time Ted stepped in and interfered with whatever he had planned. Ted was convinced that Toby was up to no good but there just wasn't anything he could prove.

* * *

Ted swung by the Garage after watching Paige leave. He escorted Florence to her loft after saying good night to Walter. While they had plenty of time together while at Cabe's their desires for each other were squelched while they were there and now they indulged their desires once her door was locked behind them.

* * *

Cabe was smiling when he picked up Allie and she looked at him, "What are you up to Mr. Gallo?"

Cabe laughed, "Well, since Paige and Ralph are home and Ted and Florence are staying at her place tonight, you and I can have a little more freedom tonight, Ms Jones."

Allie smiled wickedly, "That does sound appealing."

* * *

Paige swung by Steak and Shake on her way home since Ralph was going to be eating with their neighbor. As she sat there in the booth she felt a little uncomfortable as if someone was watching her when suddenly someone stepped up next to her table. "Hey Paige, fancy meeting you here," Tim said.

Paige was shocked, "Tim? What are you doing here?"

"I've been back a few days for a short stay before heading back to Jordan tomorrow, is it okay if I sit?" Tim asked.

Paige took a deep breath and nodded.

"How are things at Scorpion?" Tim asked

Paige frowned, 'Why would he ask about Scorpion before asking about me?' She wondered. "Everything is fine, why?" She replied.

He nodded, "Oh I heard rumor that things were really messed up. That you and the others finally told Walter off, that you dumped him and everyone walked out of him."

"You shouldn't really listen to rumors Tim." Paige warned him.

"So you didn't dump him and you all are still working with the jackass?" Tim said with a smirk.

Paige looked at him for several minutes when the waitress walked by so she stopped her and handed her a twenty and told her to keep the change for a tip and then looked at Tim again. "I don't know what you are really doing here Tim," she said as she stood up, "But I think it would be for the best if while you are in LA to stay as far away from me as possible." She turned and left quickly.

As she drove down the street she knew it could have been random chance that Tim could have been there when she got there but the way he acted, what he said told her that it was not a random happening. "Call Cabe," she said out loud.

"Calling Cabe," the car's computer answered.

Cabe picked up on the third ring, "Paige, this isn't a good time."

"Cabe, I'm so sorry to disturb you but something weird just happened. Did you know Tim is back in town?" Paige asked with a little panic in her voice.

Cabe picked up on her tone instantly, "What happened kid?"

"Cabe I stopped to have some dinner and I felt uncomfortable the whole time when suddenly he walked up. He appeared congenial on the outside but his words and the vibe really has me a little freaked out." Paige told him.

"Okay kid, where are you?" Cabe asked concerned.

"I'm about ten minutes from my place; I need to pick up Ralphy from my neighbor." Paige told him.

"Okay, stay at your neighbors until I get there. I'll make a couple of phone calls and then I'll come over and make sure everything is okay at your place unless you want to come over to my home?" Cabe asked.

Paige smiled, "I really shouldn't put you out Cabe, I just had to reach out to someone."

"Sweetheart, I love you and you're not putting me out. I'll see you in about thirty minutes." Cabe told her.

Paige smiled as she hung up.

Cabe looked at Allie, "Apparently Tim is back in town and he freaked Paige out. I'm going to go make sure everything is okay and then I'll be back."

Allie smiled, "My hero."

Cabe chuckled as he kissed her before getting up and getting dressed and leaving. As he drove down the street he said "Call Armstrong."

"Calling Tim Armstrong," his car's computer announced.

"Hey Cabe," Tim answered his phone.

"Hey Tim, what's going on?" Cabe asked him.

"Not too much, I'm in town until tomorrow then I am going back to Jordan, how you doing?" Tim asked.

"Well I was doing pretty good until I got a call from Paige, seems you freaked her out pretty good. Mine telling me why?" Cabe asked.

Tim kind of laughed, "Well I wasn't really trying to freak her out but after being dumped by her and she hooked up with Walter, I got to admit I was a little happy when I found out she dumped him and everybody left the jerk."

Cabe bit his tongue, "Okay, well do me a favor and stay away from her while you're in town. Okay?"

"Sure Cabe, I can do that for you. I'm leaving tomorrow anyway." Tim told him.

"Thanks Tim, have a good trip back to Jordan." Cabe told him as he hung up.

"Call Homeland," he said out loud.

"Calling Homeland," his computer announced.

He put in a request to verify Tim was leaving for Jordan tomorrow and to have a trace put on his phone to see where he was.

* * *

As Cabe pulled up in front of Paige's place his phone rang and the Homeland agent on the other end told him that Tim was scheduled to depart tomorrow for Jordan and according to the trace he was at a hotel close to the airport.

Cabe called Paige and let her know he was outside. He saw a door a couple of doors down open and Paige stepped out and waved so he got out of his SUV and waited for her and Ralph to come down. After verifying her place was safe Ralph went in to finish is paper for Caltech. "I called and spoke with Tim, he promised to stay away from you while he is here in town. I also confirmed he is on a flight out tomorrow to Jordan and right now he is at one of the hotels by the airport." Cabe told her.

Paige hugged him tightly, "Thank you Cabe, I don't know what I would have done without you tonight. He really was creepy at the restaurant. I don't know if he just wanted to hurt me mentally or if he would have tried something else."

Cabe nodded, "Yea, he's not taking any of the blame for the break up and I am sure he is blaming some of it on Walter too. If he comes around again you call 911 and give them my badge number okay? That'll get you help the quickest and then call me."

Paige hugged him tightly again, "Thank you Cabe."

Paige wrapped herself up tightly in Walter's shirt that night; she squirted more of his cologne on it and even took the pillow case out of the bag in the drawer trying to help banish the ill feeling she had because of Tim.

She wasn't ready to get up when her alarm went off and she snoozed it a couple of times before finally forcing herself to get up.

* * *

She kept looking over her shoulder all the way to work and she was happy to see Cabe standing by his SUV. Cabe saw the bags under her eyes, "Kid, didn't you sleep last night?"

She shook her head as she hugged him, "I couldn't get past what happened with Tim last night. Thank you again for being there for me."

Cabe kissed her forehead, "Of course, I did verify his flight left this morning with him on it. I also placed a marker on his passport so when he comes back to the US I'll be notified and I can let you know before he gets back."

"Thank you," she kissed his cheek and they walked up and entered the office.

* * *

Ted showed up about 10 AM and took over watching Paige and Cabe left for the Garage. He got there just as Walter and Florence stepped out of the Garage. "Where you guys going?" Cabe asked.

Walter smiled at him, "We got that job bid this morning, I didn't know if you would be here and Florence was going to take me."

Cabe smiled, "Get in and I'll take you."

* * *

Paige and the guys were getting ready to leave for their interview when Ted's phone rang. He was being ordered back to Homeland for a debriefing on the surveillance around Scorpion. "I'm sorry Ms Dineen, I've got to return to Homeland and I don't have a replacement to escort you." Ted told her.

Paige nodded, "I think we'll be okay. Thank you so much for being here."

* * *

The meeting wasn't going well, Cabe could see this guy wasn't even trying to mask his dislike for Walter and Walter was acting a little more like his old self that people always had a problem with. Finally the interview was concluded and they walked out of the office and there across from the door sitting on the couch was Paige and Centipede Partners.

* * *

***splat***


End file.
